The political system in Brazil has been rocked by a mammoth corruption investigation nicknamed Operation Car Wash, even as the country’s economy remains trapped in the worst recession it has experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
CUTTING ACROSS THE IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDE, the entire political class in Brazil seems to be treading a knife edge. Since the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff by an opportunistic alliance in the country’s parliament last year, an activist section of the Brazilian judiciary has been rapidly on the rise.
While there were no specific corruption charges against Dilma Rousseff, the accusations were that she had lied about the size of the government deficit and borrowed from a state-owned bank to cover up the budgetary deficit. The opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB),which came to power after the parliamentary coup d’etat, represents the interests of Brazilian big business. While Brazil is a multiracial society, with Afro-Brazilians constituting more than 40 per cent of the population, the cabinet selected after the removal of Dilma Rousseff was all-white and all-male.
CORRUPTION A FACT OF LIFE
It is a truism that corruption in government, as well as in politics, is a fact of life in Brazil, and that its peculiar system of government necessitates perpetual political wheeling and dealing. Despite the enormous popularity of President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff, and the progressive policies they implemented in the country, the Workers’ Party, or Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), could never get a working majority in parliament until the early part of this decade and had to depend on centre-right parties to run the government. Money was an important inducement that secured opposition legislators’ support for key bills during the 13 year-long Workers’ Party rule. A decade ago, the PT was caught paying monthly stipends to legislators from opposition parties in order to secure their votes to pass government-backed legislation.
Esta historia es de la edición August 18, 2017 de FRONTLINE.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
