Claiming the October 2022 National Election as ‘stolen’, thousands of street goons who are supporters of neofascist Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, had on January 8 stormed the country’s Parliament, Presidential Palace and Supreme Court destroying artwork and attempting to set fire Parliament from inside, according to videos circulated by global media. Revealingly, and as alleged by President Lula da Silva himself, it was with the connivance of the police which was remaining as mere spectators that the pro-Bolsonaro fascist goons had invaded the highest executive offices of the State. It is reminiscent of January 6, 2021 when fascist rioters stormed the US Capitol in their attempt to prevent certification of 2020 US election that declared the defeat of neofascist Trump.
Earlier, several thousands of ‘Bolsonaristas’ or violent supporters of Bolsonaro could be seen roaming around and even gathering at military barracks calling on the Brazilian army to capture power. In essence, they resembled the paramilitary “fascist storm troopers” like the “black shirts” and “brown shirts” of Mussolini and Hitler respectively. Though Bolsonaro who is now safely settled in Florida, US has denied any kind of involvement in the rioting, according to independent observers, the political responsibility of the attempted ‘coup’ in Brazil is with Bolsonaro himself.
Of course, Modi’s statement together with world leaders expressing deep “concern” on the vandalism of supporters of Bolsonaro is quite enticing. However, more striking is the similarity among Trump, Bolsonaro and Modi, since the trio is being projected by international media as ‘cast in the same mould’. The regimes led by the three are characterised as typical neofascist and as standard bearers of far-right neoliberalism rooted in majoritarianism. For, depending on the concrete situation in the respective countries, while the ideological basis of Trump and Bolsonaro was Christian Evangelism, for the Indian regime, it is Manuvad-Hindutva.
Modi’s affinity towards both Bolsonaro and Trump who are experts in bolstering the cult of personality, has its manifestation during his second tenure or Modi.2. For, Bolsonaro was the chief guest at India’s first Republic Day Parade after Modi’s reelection in May 2019. Similarly, Trump visited India during February 2020 when there had been growing and widespread concern about COVID. The official Indian response on these two occasions revealed the close intimacy and integration among the three neofascist regimes.
While leaders from all quarters of the world have come forward condemning the ‘coup’ attempted by the fascist goons of Bolsonaro, as Indians, we cannot gloss over the present neofascist situation in our country where the reins of the regime here are controlled by RSS, the longest-running and biggest fascist organisation in the world. In fact, the Evangelical “storm troopers” of Bolsonaro and Trump are a small fry compared to RSS that leads the Sangh Parivar controlling both street and state power in India through hundreds of secret and open organisations, permeating the entire micro and macro spheres of society. It has its tentacles spread across not only civil administration including judiciary but even in the military. Being far-right in economic orientation, with the backing of immense corporate power, it has control over the corporate media, both online and offline. Its control over India’s political, cultural, educational and intellectual spheres are also much discussed.
According to the concrete historical conditions of the Americas, while the most corrupt corporate capital, through the likes of Trump and Bolsonaro, relies on Evangelism as the ideological basis of neofascism, the Indian counterpart of it is the most inhuman brahmanical caste system, the holy book of which is Manusmriti that the RSS put forward as India’s Constitution during the 1949-50 period. According to Manusmriti, the Dalits who form major part of the Indian working class are subhuman along with women. And in its maddening pace towards the goal of Hindurashtra, denial of citizenship rights to Muslims and subjugation of them as ‘second class citizens’ are also in full swing. In this context, the 2024 General Election in India will be decisive as the year thereafter is the centenary of RSS. Hence, at this critical juncture, it is high time on the part of all progressive-democratic forces together with all working and oppressed peoples of India to study lessons from the events in Brazil, the powerhouse of South America and fifth largest country in the world.
P J James, General Secretary, CPI (ML) Red Star, New Delhi
