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Why Has Mahua Moitra’s Speech in Parliament Gone Viral?

Courtesy: Various Newsreports

9 February 2021: This dazzling Trinamool Congress Party Member of parliament Mahua Moitra has made it to the top of the Lok Sabha charts several times before. But this speech was significant, as it came in the middle of the farmers protests and took on not just the government but by its sheer fire, but the dull and rather boring opposition as well.

And such has been her performance in Parliament front the word go, that Moitra had the full attention of the House including the Speaker who seemed reluctant to interrupt and stop her flow.

In her 21-minutes speech during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, she lashed out at the government for making ‘hate and bigotry’ a part of its narrative and alleged that the judiciary and the media have also ‘failed’ the country.

The sniggers that accompanied her first speech—also excellent—in the House disappeared into rapt attention as the MPs across party lines listened to Moitra zero in on the farmers protests, and make it clear to the treasury benches that it was now a case of “repeal the farm laws, or nothing”.

In her scathing and no holds barred speech, she took on the Government on issues spanning from its faulty policies to iron-fist dealing of dissent and mismanagement of the ongoing farmer’s protest. She called out the Government for its authoritarian stance over the last 6 years and opting for “brutality over morality”.

Her speech was filled with conviction and candour, so much so that even the speaker, RSP member N K Premachandran, was flabbergasted enough, to make any serious effort at stopping her. She was a force to reckon with, and concluded her speech, with the demand of “Repeal or nothing”, for the farm laws.

Most salient points of her speech

On Monday, Moitra started out her speech by throwing terms like ‘cowards and cowardice’ to slam the government for ‘hiding behind’ power and authority and alleged that it has made India a “virtual police state” by charging critical voices with sedition.

From there on, Moitra addressed several burning issues of the country, and questioned the government, one topic at a time.

On Citizenship Amendment Act

Moitra asked as to why the home ministry had been extending the deadline to frame CAA rules. “If indeed this government cares so much for persecuted Hindus why does it miss deadline after deadline to notify CAA rules?” Moitra questioned.

On Covid-19 lockdown

Further, she hit out at the government for having the ‘courage’ to announce a national lockdown at 4 hours notice.

”The government’s decision to impose a nationwide lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 inflicted “untold misery” on people with lakhs of people forced to walk to their homes hundreds of kilometres away”, Moitra alleged.

On Farm Laws 2020

She demanded that the three new farm laws that have drawn protests from farmers be repealed. The TMC MP said the government chose “brutality over morality” in failing to address the concerns of the protesting farmers on Delhi’s borders, and added that it was shameful for MEA to respond to Twitter posts by a teen climate activist and an American pop star.

Speaking with Facts

A salient feature of Mahua Moitra’s speech was that, she talked on the basis of facts and figures, from giving important insights on the state of the economy in the past few years, dismantling the dubious claims of Government of an apparent economic boom and 5 trillion economy.

On Former Chief Justice of India

Her critical references reached its peak when she attacked former Chief Justice of India and the sexual harassment allegations that had been made against him. Without naming him, she noted that judiciary was no longer a ‘sacred cow’, triggering outrage in the Lok Sabha.

RSP MP N K Premachandran, who was in the Chair, said her remarks will be expunged if found objectionable.

On India’s judiciary

”The judiciary stopped being sacred when it led migrants walk to their deaths, let our great activists rot in jail and today it is a mute spectator when our young are prosecuted for cracking a joke,” Moitra continued while being critical of India’s judiciary.

On govt’s attempts to suppress dissent

Moitra alleged that India is facing an “undeclared emergency” and accused the government of muffling protesting voices from students to farmers and old women of Shaheen Bagh, remarking that ‘the coward is brave only armed with power and authority. You are not courageous but a coward’.

On Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

The MP ended her speech by using a quote of Rabindra Nath Tagore, to accuse the Central Government of exploiting Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s legacy for political mileage. She chided the Government for appropriating the legacy of historical leaders like Subhash Chandra Bose, “The central government has tried in every way to hijack Netaji’s legacy and weave it into its own narrow narrative of courage.” She reiterated that Bose stood for National integration, unlike the ruling dispensation which has reduced Nationalism, to a “narrow religious chant”, which only aims at alienating the minorities and wield majoritarian supremacy.

Reacting to the outrage over her speech, the TMC MP, remained defiant and said that she would deem it a privilege if a breach of privilege motion is moved against her “for speaking the truth during India’s darkest hour”.

Moitra Spoke for All of Us

This speech was all the more significant because it came at a time when many Indians have given up all hope on any political leader to counter the vindictiveness of the Government and its policies. What sets Mahua apart from other politicians, is that she didn’t restrict herself to the safe territory of speaking for the farmers of Punjab, but also spoke for the Dadis of Shaheen Baug, an issue even the most vocal politicians shy away from. She spoke for incarcerated journalists, activists, and comedians.

She spoke for each one of us, and didn’t make anyone feel left out. It is a rare quality in a leader, in today’s time where most of them are wary to chart a course on “controversial” tides and offend popular sentiment. As Mahua Moitra chimed, “There is a fundamental difference between cowardice and courage. The coward is brave only when armed with power and authority. The truly courageous can fight even when unarmed”. It’s time for all of us to be courageous.

After a long time, the National Anthem stirred some kind of emotion inside me, when Mahua Moitra narrated the last part of the Bengali Version, written by Rabindranath Thakur, another icon, whose legacy BJP has been trying to appropriate. It was the emotion of hope. Hope, that perhaps there is still a chance of redemption for the political discourse in the country.

Thank you Mahua Moitra for channeling the rage and disappointment many Indians have been feeling in the last few years and using your “parliamentary privilege”, as you put it, to give words to those sentiments. As, Billy Graham said, “Courage is contagious. When one man takes a stand, the spine of others are stiffened “.

What Mahua Moitra did with her impassioned speech in Parliament is showing the way forward to many opposition parties, on how to hold a mirror to the Government without the fear of being bullied or mocked. The fact that makes it even more empowering, is that, it was a woman, who held the ruling Government accountable for their actions and reminded them that tyranny has a short shelf life.

She single-handedly raised the level of discourse in Parliament. It is a given, that if we have more leaders, emulating her courage and conviction, there is a fair chance of redemption for the Indian Polity, after all, “It is not in India’s destiny to be ruled by cowards.”

(Compiled by us on the basis of newsreports in The Citizen, India.com, National Herald.)

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Here’s Everything Mahua Moitra Said In Her Iconic Parliament Speech

Courtesy: HuffPost

(Below is the full text of TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s first ever speech in the Parliament on 6 July 2019.)

“Sir, I rise to oppose the Motion and to speak in support of the amendments made by our party. First of all, let me begin by humbly accepting the resounding mandate that this government has got. But, it is the very nature of the overwhelmingness of this mandate, of the totality of this mandate, that makes it necessary for us to be heard today, the voice of dissent to be heard today. Had the mandate been any less, there would have been a natural checks and balances woven into the narrative. That is not the case. The House belongs to the Opposition. So, I stand today to reclaim this inch that has been guaranteed tous.

Let me start by quoting Maulana Azad, whose statue stands tall outside this great hall. He once said of this country that he was fighting to build. He said, “It is India’s historic destiny that many human races and cultures should flow to her, finding a home in a respectable soil, and that many a caravan should find rest here. There are cultures, our languages, our poetry, our literature, our art, the innumerable happenings of our daily life shall bear the stands of our joined endeavour.”

This is the ideal that was carved into our Constitution. This is the very Constitution each of us has sworn to protect. But, this Constitution is under threat today. Of course, you may disagree with me. You may say, acche din are here and the sun will never set on this Indian empire that this Government is seeking to build. But, then you are missing the signs. If you only would open your eyes, you would see that there are signs everywhere that this country is torn apart.

In the few minutes that have been allotted to me, let me list out these dangerous signs. The first sign – there is a powerful and continuing nationalism that is being sphered into our national fabric. It is superficial, it is xenophobic, it is narrow. It has a lust to divide. It is not a desire to unite. Citizens are being thrown out of their homes and are being called illegal immigrants. People who have lived in this country for 50 years have to show a piece of paper to prove they are Indians. In a country where ministers cannot produce degrees to show that they graduated from college, you expect disposed poor people to show papers as proof that they belong to this country?

Slogans and symbols are being used to test religion. There is no one slogan, no one symbol that ensure any Indian that they are patriot. There is no one test, Sir. No one test.

Sir, the second sign – there is resounding disdain for human rights that is permeating in every level of governance. There has been a ten-fold increase in the number of hate crimes between 2014 and 2019. 10X. This is like the valuation of an e-commerce start-up, Sir. There are forces in this country that are sitting there just pushing this number up. The lynching of citizens in broad daylight is being condoned. From Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan last year to Mr Ansari in Jharkhand yesterday, the list is not stopping.

The third sign – there is an unimaginable subjugation and control of mass media today. Five of the largest news media organizations in India are today either indirectly controlled or indirectly debted to one man in this country. TV channels spent a majority of airtime broadcasting propaganda for the ruling party. Coverage of every Opposition party is cut out. Let the government come out with facts and figures to show ad-spend per media house. What are they spending the money on and which media houses are they blocking out? The Information and Broadcasting Ministry employs over 120 people solely to check the content on TV channels every day to make sure that there is no anti-government news being put out.

Fake news is the norm. This election was not fought on the plank of farmer distress. This election was not fought on unemployment. This election was fought on Whatsapp, on fake news, on manipulating minds. Every piece of news that this government, I repeat, every piece of news that this government have put out, every lie that you put out, you repeat and repeat and then it becomes the truth. This is the Goebbels doctrine.

You talk about naamdar and kaamdar? Let me tell you the Congress party might have put up 36 dynast since 1999 in parliament but the BJP put up 31. Every time you put out one figure anything that is not the truth, you are destroying the fabric of India. Yesterday the floor leader of the Congress party said that the co-operative movement has been a failure in Bengal and I urge him to check his facts. The one co-operative that he is referring to – Bhagirathi – in Murshidabad is now in profit. Every little misinformation that we put out serves to destroy this country.

The fourth sign is that there is an obsession with national security – identification of enemies. When we were children our mother used to tell us to do this and do that or kala bhoot will come. It is as though all of us in this country today are in fear of some nameless, shameless kala bhoot. There is fear pervading everywhere. The achievements of the army are being usurped in the name of one man. Is this correct? New enemies are being created every day and the irony is that over the last five years terrorist attacks have gone up manifold. There has been a 106 per cent increase in the death of jawans in Kashmir.

The fifth sign is that the government and religion are now intertwined in this country. Do I even need to speak about this? Need I remind you that we have redefined what it means to be a citizen? With the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill we are making sure that there is only one community that is the target of anti-immigration laws. Members of Parliament these days are more interested in the fate of 2.77 acres of land than in the 812 million acres of the rest of India.

Yeh sirf 2.77 acre janmabhhoomi ka mudda nahi hain. Yeh sara desh, 80 crore acres, ko akhand rakhne ka prashna hai.

The sixth sign is the most dangerous. There is complete disdain for intellectuals and the arts. There is a repression of all dissent, funding is being cut for liberal education, scientific temperament which is enshrined in Article 51 of the Constitution. There is Article 51 of the Constitution, which demands a scientific temperament. Everything we are doing is pushing India back to the dark ages. Secondary school textbooks are being manipulated and distorted in order to indoctrinate.You don’t even tolerate questioning, let alone dissent.

I wish to quote the great Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. I wish to tell you this, that the spirit of dissent is integral to India. You cannot shatter us.

“Haan haan duryodhan baandh mujhe,

baandhne mujhe toh aaya hai.

Zanjeer bari kya laya hai?

Yadi mujhe baandhna chahe man,

pehle toh baandh anant gagan.

Sune ko sadhna sakta hai,

woh mujhe kab baandh sakta hai?”

I ask you this, you cannot keep us down.

Number seven, the last sign; there is an erosion of independence in our electoral system. The Election Commission was used to transfer key officials. Rs 60,000 crore was spent in this election; 50 percent by one party, Rs 27,000 crore.

In 2017, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum put up a poster in its main lobby and it contained a list of all the signs of early fascism. Each of the seven signs I have pointed to you featured in that poster. There is a danger of fascism rising in India. It is incumbent upon all of us to stand up to it. Let us, the Members of this 17th Lok Sabha decide which side of history do we want to be on. Do we want to be upholders of this Constitution or do we want to be its poll bearers?

I do not dispute the resounding mandate that this Government has got but I have the right to disagree with your idea that ‘there was no one before and that there should be no one after you.’

In conclusion, I quote the poet Rahat Indori:

“Jo aaj saahibe masnad hain kal nahin honge

Kiraaydaar hain jaati makaan thodi hai,

Sabhi ka khoon shaamil yahan ki mitti me

Kisi ke baap ka hindustan thodi hai?”

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Below is a photo of the poster referred to by Mahua Moitra in her 2019 speech:

(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)