Mahua Moitra belongs to a party which has flagrantly flouted Election law by beating and raping and killing members of the Opposition Party. She herself may go to jail on serious corruption charges. Yet the Guardian has printed an article by her which claims that ' Electoral laws flouted, opposition MPs arrested – this is what it’s like to stand against Modi’s BJP
Abh ke baar 400 paar (“More than 400 seats this time”) has been the rallying cry of Narendra Modi’s election campaign, as voting for India’s 543-member lower house stretches on through the hottest months of the year.
Why is the BJP not aiming to the lose election? Clearly, it is a very evil party.
The prime minister’s method of ruling a once vibrant and now wounded democracy
if nice Italian lady is not in charge, democracy gets wounded- right? Mahua started off in Rahul's Congress party.
relies heavily on a heady mix of religious polarisation,
as opposed to Muslim appeasement. The High Court has cancelled 'OBC' certificates given by Mamta to Muslims. She says she will defy the Bench. There is no Rule of Law in West Bengal. A Muslim gangster can terrorize an entire District- raping and grabbing land with impunity- and he is protected by the State Police from Central Agencies. It is very unfair that Modi hasn't suspended the Constitution so as to prevent the prosecution of criminal legislators like Mahua.
subservient institutions
In West Bengal, the police are subservient to the gangsters ruling the State
and the apparent misuse of state-controlled agencies against his opponents.
If Mamta had any evidence of wrongdoing she could approach the Courts. But evidence exists only against her and her ilk.
On the campaign trail, he and his party have been busy peppering his speeches with anti-Muslim rhetoric,
In which case, Mahua should present this evidence to the EC and the Bench. Why has she not done so?
in a seeming violation of India’s election law, which expressly prohibits electioneering based on sectarian appeals to religion, caste, language or region.
So, she is speaking of how things seem to her. She has no evidence that the thing is actually happening. It is perfectly legal to speak out against terrorism or illegal migration or the unconstitutional grating of reservations on the basis of religion.
So what is it like to stand as an opposition candidate in today’s India?
What's it like to stand against Mamta in West Bengal? The answer is your life is in danger. Your party workers face beating, rape and murder at the hands of TMC goons.
Let me give you a sense of what we have to contend with.
Mahua will tell us a bunch of stupid lies which Guardian readers will lap up.
The first line of defence is the election commission of India (ECI), which is supposed to ensure free and fair elections but has become a helpless spectator.
of Mamta's violence
The ECI’s members were always appointed by the government of the day, but the institution has never before appeared so partisan.
to Mahua. But she has an odd view of the world. To her it appears perfectly legal to take money from an industrialist to raise questions in Parliament targeting a rival industrialist.
This is the reason that the supreme court last year said that election commissioners should henceforth be chosen by a panel in which the government does not have a majority. To this end, it recommended a three-member panel comprising the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and India’s highest-ranking judge. Modi, however, passed a law that made the third member of the panel merely another government minister, and then pushed two appointments through this flawed panel, an action which the supreme court declined to stop.
In which case, the thing is perfectly legal.
It is no wonder then that the ECI has been largely silent on allegations of egregious violations of the electoral law by Modi and various members of his ruling party,
Alternatively, they simply haven't done anything wrong.
the BJP. More important, it has refused to intervene in the face of the government’s blatant harassment of opposition parties by various official agencies during the campaign season – something previously unseen.
Nonsense! The previous administration fabricated cases against Modi, Shah and other BJP leaders. What Mahua is complaining about is corrupt politicians like herself facing criminal investigations.
On the eve of the election, the income tax authorities – controlled by the ministry of finance – froze the accounts of the Congress party, India’s largest opposition party.
Because their Treasurer failed to file a tax return.
(The authorities said it was a “routine procedure” against defaulters.)
Once they got their money, they unfroze the account. Mahua thinks she and her ilk shouldn't have to pay tax
This denied it access to party funds for the campaign.
No it didn't.
The enforcement directorate, the economic offences wing of the finance ministry, has arrested two opposition chief ministers
for corruption. The Bench gave bail to one but not the other. So what? They claim they are innocent and that the Government is out to get them. Voters may believe them.
and keeps issuing summons against opposition politicians in what are decried as unsound cases.
They are decried as such by guilty people who don't want to go to jail.
Under the constitution, the ECI has a sweeping mandate to intervene whenever government agencies at the federal or state level engage in actions that can affect electoral outcomes.
The ECI has no power to order the release of murderers, terrorists or those, like Mahua, who took money from one billionaire to attack another billionaire.
While the election commissioners are keen to act against opposition-run state governments at the slightest provocation, Modi’s apparent misuse of federal agencies does not appear to concern them.
That's how things appear to Mahua, to whom it also appears perfectly normal to take money from one rich guy to attack his rival.
But nothing illustrates the un-level playing field
in West Bengal where opposing Mamta means her goons will try to kill you
that India’s opposition is forced to operate in better than the Modi government’s “electoral bonds” scheme – an opaque, anonymous political funding system. In March, India’s supreme court finally came down hard on it, banning the scheme and ordering the country’s largest government-owned bank, the State Bank of India, as well as the election commission, to publicly release all details of donors and their funding to specific parties. Introduced in 2017 by Modi in the face of strong reservations by India’s central bank and the ECI, the scheme effectively allowed shell companies and anonymous donors to give huge sums of money to political parties.
Manmohan had introduced an even more flawed scheme. Mahua is against such schemes because she would rather skim money off the top of suitcases of black money handed to her for her party.
The largest chunk of the money, almost 50% of the total, went to Modi’s BJP.
which has more than 50 percent of the seats in Parliament.
The State Bank of India at first refused to release the compromising data until it was rapped hard on the knuckles by a persistent three-judge bench. The results, though astonishing to some, seemed to confirm what India’s opposition had been saying for years: that the scheme operated in the BJP’s interests.
Or the TMCs interest. Political parties benefit if they get white money legally. Nobody can be sure their 'bag-man' isn't skimming off the top.
Indian media has since reported on several companies that bought electoral bonds after being raided by central government agencies – leading to allegations of “extortion”.
They may have hoped that some Minister would intervene on their behalf. But there is no evidence that this has happened. In Mahua's case, there is strong evidence that she pocketed cash in return for raising questions in Parliament.
Opposition politicians have also made quid pro quo allegations about companies that donated to the BJP and received government contracts.
While the BJP has made similar allegations against opposition parties in states that they rule. The difference is that Mahua's party protects murderous gangsters.
Apart from outspending the opposition in every election, the BJP has suborned large sections of the media and launched a blitzkrieg of propaganda to minimise the importance of every burning national issue, such as joblessness and inflation, the incursions by China into Indian territory, and a civil war-like situation in the eastern state of Manipur that has taken the lives of more than 200 people, and which Modi has failed to address.
So, the ruling party is doing what ruling parties do. Mamta isn't exactly drawing attention to the parlous fiscal condition of the State she misrules.
In place of critical scrutiny, big media propitiates Modi’s personality cult. “
Not in West Bengal where attacking Mamta could get you killed.
What is that power that gives you this strong resolve to move forward?” a major TV news channel asked him this week. “God has probably sent me to do this work,” Modi replied.
Why is Mamta not confessing that Satan sent her to do his work? Mahua herself has not admitted that she was doing the work of a billionaire who paid her to attack his rival in Parliament.
Unfortunately for Modi, his gamble of a lengthy election during which he hoped to tire out the opposition may well turn out to be his undoing.
India is a big country. It has to have phased elections.
The first four phases showed a marked reduction in in voter turnout, which doesn’t bode well for the BJP getting an absolute majority for the third election in a row.
In which case, it is clear that the charges against the BJP that Mahua is making are false.
India’s electorate, used to treating elections as a celebration where, once every five years, the poorest citizens can exert their power, is keeping its cards close to its chest.
No. It's just that the EC forbids exit polls during the course of an election.
A desperate BJP is doubling down on its sectarian rhetoric.
Mamta is doubling down on her unconstitutional decision to grant affirmative action on the basis of religion.
This time, that may not be enough to push it across the finishing line of a simple majority on its own. Modi owns the track and the man with the whistle is his guy, but what the crowds seem to want is a real contest.
Between gangsters and corrupt cunts. Mahua expects to get re-elected. But she may still be sent to jail though, no doubt, her lawyers may be able to delay this outcome.
Meanwhile, the Guardian will continue to attack India. Islamophobia is not enough. We must all hate and fear Hindus. Look at that Rishi Sunak fellow. Under his tyranny, Muslims and Christians in the UK have been beaten, sodomized, and forced to perform suttee, thuggee and agarbatti. Democracy isn't safe while even one observant Hindu is running for office. The good news is the UK will soon be rid of Sunak. Modi, however, remains the most popular Indian politician.
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