E-Paper
A win in Brazil that is a blessing for India
Lula’s fourth term at the helm signals that the global wave of right-wing politics that not so long ago seemed inevitable may not really be so
Prefer HTon Google
This is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s swan song, and the notes are going to reverberate in the Americas for some time. The 81-year-old incumbent, celebrating his birthday on October 27, ran a neck-and-neck electoral race with his much younger rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, and emerged victorious as Brazil’s 39th president, upturning all predictions. Bolsonaro’s crude joke invoking Lula’s “nine fingers” allowed the latter to remind his country of its glaring inequalities: He lost a finger on a factory floor as a young man. Whether it was Lula’s dignified response to the “posh guy” whose father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, attempted a coup in 2022 after his electoral loss, a dedicated social media blitz to reach out to younger voters; debt relief to young entrepreneurs, or the untested leadership of the right-wing opponent that effected the victory is moot. What is clear, however, is that Lula’s fourth term at the helm has implications for all democracies in the world. It signals that the global wave of right-wing politics that not so long ago seemed inevitable may not really be so.
For India, Lula’s re-election bodes well. New Delhi has close relations with its BRICS partner, and both nations have been on the receiving end of unilateral US tariffs. When the tariffs were imposed on India and Brazil in 2025, Lula’s immediate outreach to PM Narendra Modi inspired confidence in multilateralism as an antidote to erratic superpower games. Lula’s visit to India shortly afterwards gave cooperation between the two countries a fillip. New Delhi can depend on him for support in multilateral fora, and for its energy needs, given Brazil has the world’s third-largest rare earth stocks.
