A day after supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Supreme Court, the BRICS Legal Forum, India Chapter (which is hosted by the Bar Association of India) has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prod G20 member countries to help strengthen the Rule of Law.
In a letter, signed by Prashant Kumar, Convenor, BRICS Legal Forum (India Chapter) and President, Bar Association of India, the lawyers' body said:
“BRICS Legal Forum India Chapter calls upon the Prime Minister of India as the host of the G20 for this year to galvanise the member countries to take the strengthening of the Rule of Law in its true sense on the top of the G 20 agenda, especially given the credentials of India as world’s biggest Rule of Law based democracy with uninterrupted transition of power through electoral process since India became independent and being home to one of the world’s most independent, active and robust judiciaries.”
WHAT ELSE DID THEY SAY?
Noting that formerly similar incidents had occurred in the US Capitol (April 2021), lawyers’ body pointed out that such a repeat warrants both outright condemnation, as well as a call for concerted action to prevent the spread of such tendencies.
They also lamented the “physical assault” on the Supreme Court in Brasilia (capital of Brazil) and said:
“The physical assault on the Supreme Court in Brasilia bears extremely serious portends for the sustenance of the Rule of Law globally, especially in the background of the rise of phenomenon in the last decades where the outcomes of electoral democracy are aggressively pursued by political players by appealing to their core constituents to the specific and professed exclusion and detriment of others who bear a different social, religious, racial, economic or ideological profile.”
Further, they noted that the assault on the judiciary is testimony to the trend of “established constitutional recourses” being discarded “in favour of violence, vandalism and anarchy which strikes a death knell to the very notion of the Rule of Law.”
BUT WHAT HAPPENED IN BRAZIL?
In a jarring flashback of the US Capitol siege of 2021, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil’s Supreme Court, Congress, and presidential offices on Sunday, 8 January.
Shocking visuals emanating from Brasilia show shattered windows and plumes of smoke, among other signs of wreckage.
Earlier on Monday morning, PM Modi took to Twitter to express concern over the reports emanating from Brasilia, and say that “democratic traditions must be respected by everyone.”
AND WHAT DID BOLSONARO’S SUPPORTERS WANT?
As per international media reports, the supporters have been opposed to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assuming office, despite an electoral win.
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