Mahua Moitra's maiden own goal.

The sensation created by Mahua Moitra's maiden speech in the Lok Sabha has been seized on as a stick with which to beat Rahul Gandhi's leadership of Congress. The narrative here is that Rahul let this rising star get away, whereas Mamta showed her tactical brilliance by recruiting not just this beautiful and highly intelligent ex-Investment banker but also by giving seats to two young and beautiful actresses.

Thus, the TMC is going to take away Congress's position as the effective Opposition to Modi's Government. The problem here is that means that the TMC comes under scrutiny. 

Should Modi be running scared? Let us look at the content of Mahua's speech (taken from Huffington Post). Does it really attack the BJP or does it impugn her own party? Since Mahua's speech focuses on the dangers of Fascism- which is about goons beating up Communists in the streets, which is what has happened in Mamta's West Bengal- it would appear that Mahua's maiden speech was an own goal.

“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 to us.

This is a poor argument. A resounding mandate for an incumbent means they are doing what the people want done. Opposing what the people want done for some abstract reason is not good politics.

What Mahua should have said is that the BJP's mandate is weak. But for the Balakot strike and Rahul's stupidity, the BJP would have been hard pressed to cobble together a coalition. Opposition to the BJP is justified because the voter's haven't really endorsed its platform or approved of its record in office. People don't want what it is selling. They do want good governance and the Opposition's job is to keep a hawk like eye on the Administration so as to ensure this outcome.

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.”

Why quote Azad? His political life was a failure. It turned out that India's historic destiny was to be partitioned on the basis of Religion. Independent India relegated Urdu to third class status and turned Muslims into a supine vote bank. After Azad's death, harassment of Muslims by the 'Custodian of Enemy Property' worsened. It was at that time that many well educated and highly productive Muslims- people like Salman Rushdie's father- were forced to migrate to Pakistan.

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.

The Constitution has a Directive Principle regarding abolition of cow slaughter and the creation of a uniform civil code. It imposes a fundamental duty on all citizens 'to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.'

Though legislators swear to uphold the Constitution, they are at liberty to change it as they please.

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.

Why admit that 'acche din' are here? For the vast majority of Indians these are 'bure din'. That's what should concern Legislators. They should open their eyes and look at the parlous condition of the toiling masses. They shouldn't start looking for signs and wonders or omens or portents of something wholly alien to and incompossible with Indian reality.

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 was that nationalism which put an end to British Imperialism. There has never been an anti-nationalist Administration. Had there been one, the Indian nation would have broken up.

It is superficial, it is xenophobic, it is narrow. It has a lust to divide. It is not a desire to unite.

The Indians were so xenophobic they got rid of the Brits. The 'lust to divide' caused the partition of the country. There was ethnic cleansing on both sides of the border.

Citizens are being thrown out of their homes and are being called illegal immigrants.

This is because they are illegal immigrants. The Indian Government gave solemn undertakings to remove them around the time Mahua was born.

People who have lived in this country for 50 years have to show a piece of paper to prove they are Indians.

As they do in the UK or the USA. Mahua herself had to show a piece of paper to prove she was entitled to study or work in both countries. Why is this contentious?

In a country where ministers cannot produce degrees to show that they graduated from college, you expect dispossessed poor people to show papers as proof that they belong to this country?

What is the logic to this argument? Suppose a minister lied about graduating from college, any legislator can move a privilege motion against that minister. However, it is not illegal per se not to be a graduate nor is there any legal duty to prove you have the qualifications you say you have

Incidentally, Mahua's Party Chief, Mamta Bannerjee claimed to have a Doctorate from 'East Georgia University'- which does not exist. It was foolish of Mahua to mention this subject.

 Moreover, if a poor person lacks the proper paper work to show citizenship, her MP can take appropriate action on her behalf. So can members of Civil Society through R.T.I. After all, a poor person is likely to have a ration card. There is a paper trail to show whether they are legal or illegal residents.

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.

Yes there is. Citizens have a fundamental duty to respect the National Anthem. Singing it is one such test. Simply shouting 'Jai Hind!' or 'Jai Bharat Mata' is good enough.

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 has indeed been a surge in cow-protection related crimes. However this happens in States where there are draconian cow-protection laws. Vigilantes give the excuse that there is lack of police coverage in their areas. The solution is proper enforcement of cow-protection legislation and better policing.

There are many Hindus who live in states where cow-slaughter is not illegal and there is no strong religious sentiment against it. We may find the laws of other states bizarre in this respect but we have to accept that the thing is perfectly legal and constitutional.

I may think a person who burns the Scripture of any Religion to be a silly fellow. But, if it is against the law of the land, then I must accept that the silly fellow is a criminal and must be punished.

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.

But Pehlu Khan's sons have been charged with cow smuggling under a Congress GovernmentQ Tabrez Ansari was suspected of theft. It appears that villagers tried to phone the police but were unable to get through. This type of vigilantism is the result of inadequate police coverage in rural areas. Indeed, it is not unknown in poorer neighbourhoods in big metros. However, in TMC ruled Bengal, even posh, well policed areas are not safe because the ruling Party relies on criminals to beat up its rivals and thus the Police turns a blind eye to their hooliganism.

That is why, as a member of the TMC, Mahua is on shaky ground. Just recently, there was a major Doctors strike caused by the TMC Government's failure to take proper action to give security to medical staff. What happened was that a elderly Muslim man died of a second heart-attack while being treated. His relatives were upset with the Doctors and manhandled some female interns. Police officers did nothing to protect the Doctors who demanded an apology. The relatives went away and returned with two truckloads of goons who beat up the Doctors. The police did nothing. The Doctors went on strike. They received death and rape threats from a TMC M.P- who was Muslim. Mamta's own nephew, a junior Doctor, joined the strike. But Mamta, in her paranoid fashion, had decided that the whole thing was a conspiracy. Meanwhile her thugs were running amok all over West Bengal. People may not have minded when these goons beat up Communist cadres- since those cadres had been just as brutal when in power. However, the specter of an assertive Muslim criminal underclass being allowed to terrorize the mainly Hindu middle class, while the Police stood idly by, was a different kettle of fish. Indeed, things have got so bad that 50 prominent Muslims have written to Mamta saying criminals 'should not be allowed to get away scot-free because they happened to be Muslims'. In this context, Mahua'sdecision to join the TMC suddenly didn't look very smart. Had she joined the BJP, and if she were genuinely able, she could have been Minister of Finance by now.

We don't believe an ex JP Morgan investment banker greatly cares about cow smugglers or petty thieves in other states. Rather we feel that she is hypocritically trying to deflect attention from the lawlessness and corruption of her own Party in her own State.

Thus her seeking for signs and prognostications of 'Fascism' seems like the behaviour of an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The fact is, Mamta decided to side-line her own Party's grassroots organization and distribute 'freebies' through Government officials so as to gain higher efficiency. But, since people could get what they needed from public servants, the local leaders were disintermediated. One result was that the grass-roots organization was taken over by 'lumpen' criminal types. Like the CPM during its last years, the TMC is basically a criminal enterprise with a few polished and cultured people at the top to create a facade of civilized values.

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.

By contrast, the TMC simply threatens people not to speak against them on talk shows. Mahua's complaint brings out the essentially civilized nature of the BJP, which buys support, to the lumpen nature of her own party which threatens and beat people.

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.

As opposed to Mamta's doctrine of letting goons beat the shit out of anyone who might plausibly be considered an enemy of hers.

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.

And Mamta will promote her nephew- not you, Mahua dear. Look what happened to Mamta's second in command, Mukul Roy. He was uncomfortable with the elevation of her nephew, Abishek, to the position of heir apparent. So he was forced out and is now with the BJP.

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.

Mahua should stick to attacking the BJP. Why suddenly turn on the Congress? The fact is the TMC has put a lot of money into cooperatives but much of it has been stolen by its own bigwigs. That is the true scandal here. As an investment banker, Mahua should know this better than anyone else.

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.

If terrorist attacks have 'gone up manifold' than national security should be an obsession.  Modi won because he implemented an offensive military doctrine. He took a gamble and it paid off. Why is Mahua pretending that there would be no terrorism if India stopped defending itself? If 9/11 could happen to America why not to India? There really is a 'kala bhoot' as the people of Sri Lanka have discovered.

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.

But, this was decided at the time of partition. Why pretend that Hindus who escape from Pakistan or Bangladesh are comparable to Muslim economic migrants?

It is noteworthy that K.Anis Ahmed, a Bangladeshi writer, has written in the NYT that Bengali Muslims who emigrated from West Bengal to East Bengal did so for purely economic reasons. Poorer Muslims who migrated to India from Bangladesh did so for purely economic reasons. By contrast Hindus who fled were genuine refugees and should have been granted citizenship long ago.

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.

God alone knows what Mahua is talking about here.

The sixth sign is the most dangerous. There is complete disdain for intellectuals and the arts.

But Bengali intellectuals genuinely are shit. As for the arts, those who are good make a lot of money. Others who are shite have a blog.

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.

Sheer nonsense. People want good quality STEM subject instruction. JNU jhollawallahs haven't helped the left, their complacency and obsession with Fascism helped destroy it.

Mamta's 'Secularism' has drawn widespread ridicule for changing the word for rainbow from 'Ram's bow' to 'Color bow' in textbooks as well as replacing 'akashi' (from the Sanskrit word for sky) with 'asmani' (from Persian).

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.

Mahua is being silly. Priyanka had quoted Dinkar and compared Modi to Duryodhan. Amit Shah gave her a fitting reply- the election result would decide who was Duryodhan and who was Arjun. Why revive this memory when it was still so fresh in the minds of Hindi speaking MPs? The fact is Priyanka's knowledge of Hindi, or Mahua's come to that, is much inferior to Modi's. He would never be foolish enough to compare himself, as Mahua is doing here, to Lord Krishna. It is highly offensive to Hindus.

Moreover, the fact is, if Dinkar was right in saying every religion has an equal right to India, then if a district becomes majority Muslim, it has a right to secede from the Union and join either Pakistan or Bangladesh. Hindus should accept second class status in those countries and eventually convert or run away- because Islam has the right to make any portion of India it controls as Islamic as it pleases.

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUMPoster referred to by Mahua Moitra in her speech.


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.

While Mahua's own party relied on goons to beat people.

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.

But this poster is utter shit. There was only one 'warning sign' of Fascism- viz. Communists running riot. At that point, the Army and the 'respectable folk' got behind an Il Duce or Fuhrer who would beat the shit out of the Commies- the way Mamta's goons have done in West Bengal.

Each of the seven signs I have pointed to you featured in that poster. There is a danger of fascism rising in India.

No there isn't. The Communists have been destroyed. Currently, politics is about 'last mile delivery' and 'booth management'.

Why talk about Fascism when very few Indians have any idea as to what it was? Don't forget, most Hindi speaking Indians think Hitler was a good guy- a friend of Netaji's- who was 'hatti', obstinate, in his Nationalism. As for Mussolini- nobody has the foggiest notion of how he rose to power. Nayantara Sahgal and Amartya Sen thought Mussolini rose by merit in a gradual process. They don't seem to be aware of the existential threat posed to the Italian polity by crazy Communists and Anarchists.

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?

Presumably, 'pall bearer' is meant. The fact is that, with the BJP getting a majority in the Upper House, the Constitution could, quite legally, be amended.

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.’

The job of an Opposition M.P is to dispute 'the resounding mandate' of the incumbent Government. Mahua should be saying 'the voters wanted something else but because of a concatenation of circumstances you guys managed to lie and cheat and scheme yourself into a majority'.

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?”

To which we might reply, with respect to Mamta's nephew, 'Is Bengal anybody's Aunty's property?' Perhaps, that is what Mahua is getting at. Does she really think Mamta Di will elevate this ex Investment Banker above her own kith and kin? She had better start making herself useful as a bagman, expert in money laundering, to her true employers.