What are the similarities between Sergio Moro and Abhijit Gangopadhyay? Like the Brazilian judge, Abhijit Gangopadhyay rose to prominence by campaigning against so-called ‘corruption’. Moro’s target was Brazil’s popular president, Lula, and his party, the Workers’ Party, just as Abhijit Gangopadhyay is targeting West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and its two top leaders, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee.
From 2016 to 2018, Brazil’s right-wing media promoted Sergio Moro as an “icon” against corruption, similar to the ‘marketing’ media in West Bengal, with their newspapers, channels, and portals, doing the same for Abhijit Gangopadhyay. Even though Abhijit Gangopadhyay has been portrayed in this Bangla propaganda machine as a fashion model, there is still significant publicity about whether he prefers playing dry or having tea-muri during Raydan.
In Brazil, where Lula is known as a socialist and leader of the left in Latin America’s largest economy, leftists and progressives have repeatedly warned that Sergio Moro’s “anti-corruption drive” has political motives.
The Bengali communists, especially the CPIM led by Bhattacharya-Chattopadhyay-Bandyopadhyay, did not consider whether Abhijit Gangopadhyay would be a benefit to right-wing politics if he became an ‘icon’. Can it be blamed if the Trinamool calls it the ‘Left-Ram’ alliance or setting?
In Brazil, the country known for soccer, Moro jailed Lula and his associates just before the 2018 presidential election. The popular president was barred from running, and in that gap, Bolsonaro won as the representative of the right. Sergio Moro then became Bolsonaro’s law minister.
Bolsonaro, on the way to becoming a Latin American far-right dictator, shares a deep affinity with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi have praised each other during the Corona pandemic.
So, if India’s right-wing leader Narendra Modi uses the same strategy to win over ‘renegade’ judges like Abhijit Gangopadhyay, as Bolsonaro used Sergio Moro to seize power, are we witnessing a familiar face of ‘fascism’ or a tendency to ‘buy’ the judiciary? Can it happen?
Prominent Supreme Court lawyer and leader of many social movements, Prashant Bhushan, had earlier warned how the RSS and BJP were trying to hijack the judiciary. Returning to Brazil, before the 2022 elections, the highest court of that country clearly stated that all judgments of Sergio Moro against Lula were politically biased. Lula regained the right to run and defeated Bolsonaro in the presidential election, as expected.
First fleeing to America to escape various charges of corruption and rigging, investigations by various international news agencies have shown that from 2016 to 2018, before Brazil’s previous presidential election, the right-wing leader Bolsonaro, Sergio Moro as a judge, and many investigative agencies were actually part of a larger conspiracy. Sergio Moro did day after day what should not happen, secretly meeting with investigating agencies and telling them what kind of evidence he would present in his court and what kind of punishment he would announce. Brazil’s Supreme Court later overturned the ban on Lula and his associates, saying Sergio Moro ruled on many issues that were not within his jurisdiction.
Considering Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s various comments from the High Court bench, from attacks on Abhishek Banerjee to attacks on Rahul Gandhi, only examples of political expediency using the Brazilian Sergio Moro judiciary come to mind.
When the so-called mainstream media and television channels of Kolkata danced about him, Abhijit Gangopadhyay was not speaking in accordance with the law and was playing outside the crease in an attempt to project himself as the ‘Messiah‘. But in the end, the cat is out of the bag. Abhijit Gangopadhyay brought forward his attempts at political self-interest.
It is a translation of Bangla piece published in Sahomon.
