Environmental activists have put out a petition against the invitation extended to ‘ecocidal and genocidal’ Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to the Republic day celebrations.
Reports say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Bolsonaro to be the chief guest at next year’s Republic Day. This comes weeks after the widespread Amazon fires which, many claim, have been a result of Bolsonaro's anti-environment agenda.
The petition, with over 1800 signatures on November 21, has been doing the rounds on social media, urging people to stand up against the invitation to Bolsonaro.
The petition was started by a group called the United Conservation Movement (UCM), which is an ecology group that is also running a campaign against the deforestation of trees in the Western Ghats to pave way for mining and hydroelectric power plants.
In a statement, they said, “To have this man invited to India's Republic Day Celebrations is an affront to the principles of conservation, Human Rights and Justice. We …unanimously express condemnation of the decision of the Indian Government to invite him to our Republic Day Parade.”
The Amazon rainforest, which is often referred to as the Earth’s lungs, covers an area of about 5.7 million square kilometres. The Amazon is the largest remaining tract of evergreen rainforests, which provides clean air and ecological balance to the rest of the world. Since Bolsonaro became president of Brazil this year, protection of the Amazon rainforests has been rolled back and its deforestation has accelerated.
Bolsonaro has reportedly cut funding to Brazil’s national environmental agency, reduced penalties for illegal deforestation, and his government also sacked the head of Brazil’s space agency after it reported a sharp rise in deforestation rates.
Bolsonaro has also allegedly indirectly caused the genocide of indigenous tribes of the Amazon, who have been protecting the rainforests for millennia. Many human rights activists who stood up for the rights of the indigenous protectors of the land, have been allegedly murdered by loggers. Bolsonaro, during his presidential campaign, promised to allow the commercial exploitation of the Amazonian basin.
They claim that supporting an individual with such a record would be equivalent to supporting genocide and causing degradation of the planet. Sandeep Anirudhan, one of the activists leading the campaign, says, “When the rest of the world is denouncing and censuring him for his actions, why should India invite him and give him centre-stage? Our country is being set up for global ridicule, we all will have to hang our heads in shame! We should instead be inviting Greta Thunberg, who is leading the fight against climate change.”
There is also a Twitter storm planned for Thursday, November 21, demanding that the Indian government cancel his visit, under the hashtags, #NoBolsonaro and #DontPolluteRepublicDay.