Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro witnessed India’s traditional Republic Day parade as the chief guest, as the country marked the incorporation of its Constitution, today.
Hundreds of CCTV cameras were installed as part of the security apparatus for the day. At least 150 cameras were put up in areas covering the Red Fort, Chandni Chowk and Yamuna Khadar. Over 10,000 security personnel were deployed across the capital city.
Amid tight security around Rajpath, the celebrations began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh paying tribute at the National War Memorial in New Delhi.
Many in the country however, did not celebrate the Republic Day to mark their protest against the chief guest.
Protests against Jair Bolsonaro had broke out much before he stepped foot on Indian soil. This is largely because Prime Minister Modi’s South American counterpart is not very popular among many sections of the world connected through news, media and the Internet.
Often called ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’, the Brazilian leader has many a times drawn flak from his own citizens, especially the indigenous people, for insensitively remarking on environmental and political factors impacting their lives.
In 1998, he expressed dismay at the Brazilian cavalry ‘inefficiency’ as they had not been successful in exterminating Brazil’s indigenous tribes as the North Americans had been in killing off Native Americans.
Most recently, on 23rd January, Bolsonaro declared on his regular Facebook broadcast that the indigenous people in Brazil are “becoming human beings”. He has also been an open endorser of state violence and state-sanctioned torture and civil wars.
When the Amazon basin was on fire from August last year, the South American supremo had denied its impact – while blaming media – and even its occurrence at the UN General Assembly.
The President had previously even demeaned lawmaker Maria do Rosario, in 2014 while she was arguing about the human rights violation in Brazil under military dictatorship. He said he wouldn’t rape her because she was ugly and a “slut”, in response to her argument in front of a camera crew.
In 2011, he made a homophobic comment when he said, “I am incapable of loving a homosexual son. I would rather wish he dies in an accident.”
Thus, it is not too hard to guess why Indians at Mumbai’s Churchgate and in Delhi’s Connaught Place, are protesting against the honoured presence of an individual of his reputation and ideology, on a day when the secular and socialist values of India were cemented.
Also Read:Unscientific Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Right Choice For Republic Day Chief Guest?
