New Delhi: A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi faced sustained hooting from the treasury benches, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra came down heavily on the Lok Sabha chair, BJP MP Rama Devi, for abruptly cutting her speech even before her allotted time of 13 minutes was over. Later, she protested against the chair by completing her speech outside the Lok Sabha in front of the media.
Her speech on Thursday on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address enumerated a number of human rights violations and alleged executive excesses during the last few years of the Narendra Modi government. She made a note of how the US-based Freedom House Report downgraded India’s status from “free” to “partly free” and that India has fallen 17 spots to 111th position out of 160 countries in the Human Freedom Index.
She also mentioned that India is at an abysmal 142nd position out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, adding that the country “remains one of the most dangerous places for journalists today.”
While the treasury benches were largely silent during her speech, the chair uncharacteristically stopped her around five minutes into her speech, and commented, “Mahua ji, thoda sa prem se boliye. Itna Gussa mat kariya. Ache se Boliye (Please talk in a mellow manner, don’t get angry. Say it in a good way).”
Mahua responded by saying that her anger comes from within and continued her speech. She quoted Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ who said that tolerance, forgiveness should be virtues one should emulate but those should not keep a person away from showing their strength.
“Thoda bal bhi dikhana chahiye (We should show little strength too),” Moitra said, eliciting the remark, “Bas thoda hi hona chahiye, Sahanshilta sabse pahle (Yes, it should be shown only a little. Tolerance should be above all),” from the chair.
Her speech referred to the farmers’ agitation, the ‘Bulli Deals’ app in which Muslim women were auctioned and the Pegasus spyware controversy:
“The way the masters of the republic mistrust the present is most accurately illustrated by the Pegasus mess. The government stands accused of having spent taxpayers money to buy technology to spy for years on its own citizens. To paraphrase a leading journalist, the New York Times is lying, The Wire is lying, Amnesty is lying, the French government is lying, the German government is lying, the US government is lying, WhatsApp and Apple – who have sued NSO are lying. Only this government is in splendid isolation with the truth on Pegasus. One minister calls it Supari media, another stands up in this house and lies to us blatantly. The government has misled even the Supreme Court.”
She continued with references to raids on opposition leaders ahead of elections, targeting of Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists and recent attacks on Christians by the same groups in 19 Indian towns. She lashed out at the Union government’s attempts to alter IAS cadre rules and said that the tweaking of rules was a heavy-handed move by the Union government to “bully” bureaucrats in the states.
“You mistrust the Jats, Sikhs and anyone who stands up to you. But as elections are around the corner, you shamelessly put on a pagdi,” she said in an apparent reference to the prime minister who had donned a Sikh turban during the NCC Republic Day camp even as he had refused to listen to the demands of farmers for over a year despite the death of hundreds of protesters.
“You (the government) want to get inside our homes, what we eat, what we wear,” Moitra said.
Moitra claimed that the mention of freedom fighters in the president’s address was mere “lip service”. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whom Kovind referred to in the speech, held the view that the government of India should have an absolutely neutral and impartial attitude towards all religions. Stating this, she asked, “Would Netaji have approved of a Haridwar Dharma Sansad that issues blood-curdling calls for Muslim genocide?”
Moitra also accused the government of being in fear of an India which was “comfortable in its own skin”. “Ours is a living constitution, it breathes as long as we are willing to breathe life into it. Otherwise, it is just a piece of paper, black and white, that can be smudged into shades of grey by any majoritarian government,” she said.
The TMC MP also accused the Modi government of seeking to “alter history” and said, “They are fearful of the future and they mistrust the present.” She added that “this battle of 80% vs 20% that this government has started risks destroying our republic.”
However, a little over 11 minutes into her speech, Rama Devi pressed the bell and called on Kerala MP Mohammed Basheer to speak. Despite her appeal that her allotted time isn’t over and that she would need two more minutes, Rama Devi stopped her speech.
Immediately after her speech, Moitra began her protest. “Is it any of her right, is it any of her business to tell me how I should do my speech. She tells me not to get angry. Whether I should be angry or mellow, it is up to me. It is my tenor, my tone.”
Such fear, such shamelesness. I had only paragraph left to finish, my alloted time of 13 mins was NOT over pic.twitter.com/Xy9PX7BHYE
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 3, 2022
LS Speaker had alloted AT LEAST 13 mins to me, when confronted in his chamber he claimed he was not in chair hence cant be blamed.
When further cornered he said “It was my greatness that I even allowed you 13 mins in 1st place.”
Unbelievable.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 3, 2022
And who is Chair to interrupt me (taking up MY valuable time) to lecture me on whether I should speak with gussa or pyar?
None of of your business Madam. You can only correct me on rules. You are NOT the moral science teacher for LS.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 3, 2022
She asked whether the opposition parties are expected to control their anger from now on. “Given what the government is doing, if we have to sit there and control our gussa (anger), then what is left,” the TMC MP said.
She appealed to all opposition parties to come together and defeat the BJP. “Woh Subah hum hi se aayegi (That dawn will come from us). Enough of sahanshilta (tolerance), daya (symapthy), Kshama (forgiveness), it is time now to become Tipu’s (Sultan) springing tiger.”