This week’s Monday-speech in the parliament by an MP from West Bengal, Mohua Moitra, has surely ripped through the bombastic unfounded ego of ardent supporters of Modi regime, provided they have accessed, heard & understood it. The speech by the flamboyant MP probably has sent shivers down the spines of the ardent followers of the current regime. MP Moitra has been known for her scathing attacks on the functioning of the Modi regime. But, the latest speech surely has rubbed salt on the smorgasbord of wounds of the regime cornered by the economic slowdown, the disrespecting of the national anthem at an election rally in Bengal, the crackdown on the journalists and the unprecedented scale of the farmers’ protests gathering storm at a stone’s throw from the doorsteps of the parliament.

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In the beginning of the speech, MP Moitra, in a way of taking jibe, stated that the Lok Sabha TV which is funded by tax payers’ money may not switch the live telecast of the channel off during her speech.

Using the platform in the deliberative assembly of Indian parliament, MP Moitra launched a vitriolic assault on the Modi regime. She right away castigated the BJP over the National anthem issue and pointed out that the saffron party leaders could never fathom the larger deeper meaning of the complete actual poem of Guru Rabindranath Tagore from which Jana gana mana was taken. She stated that BJP leaders need to understand Tagore & Bengal better prior to lecturing on nationalism.

Before understanding what MP Moitra said, one must grasp that the actual complete poem, Bharat Bhagya Bidhata, composed by the Bengali polymath Tagore, was originally published in the Tattwabodhini patrika, founded by one of the originators of the Brahmo Samaj, Debendranath Tagore, a contemporary of Vidyasagar, and was first sung in the December 1911 session of the then young INC.  The song was performed by Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, along with some school students in 1912. The first stanza of the poem Bharat Bhagya Bidhata had been adopted as the National anthem on January 24, 1950 by the constituent assembly of newly independent India. MP Moitra spelled out the next stanza of the poem which goes as follows:

Ōhorōho tōbo aobhano procharito,

Shuni tōbo udaro bani;

Hindu Bouddho Shikh Joino Parošik Musolmano Khrishṯani

Purōbo poshchimo aše,

Tōbo šinghašōno pashe,

Premoharo hoy gãtha.

Jōno gōno oikyo-bidhayōko jōyo he

Bharōto bhagyo bidhata!

The above lines summarily translate into the following.

By the call of the Bharat, all including Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Muslims & Christians from the East, & the West, gather united around the throne, symbolizing unity,( Jōno gōno oikyo-bidhayōko) weaving the garland of love joined by unity, enriching the fate of Bharat.

MP Moitra highlighted this aspect of the National anthem which always escapes the narrow polarizing vision-field of the Modi regime. While Moitra was elucidating this, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, a leader of Congress, which will be fighting the Bengal election against the Moitra’s party TMC, could be seen visibly agreeing and supporting her assertions, much to the chagrin of the MPs of BJP like Smriti Irani.

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A furore was trigerred when MP Moitra pointed out how the former CJI had expunged himself of all the charges of sexual assault before becoming a member of the upper house Rajya Sabha.  Minister of Parliamentary affairs Prahlad Joshi had sought to move breach of privilege motion against MP Moitra for dragging in the name of CJI on the parliament floor.  But, in the context of parliamentary affairs, it can be safely opined that since it was the matter of a former and not a sitting CJI, privilege motion cannot be brought against MP Moitra. But, on Wednesday a privilege notice motion was brought in by BJP MP PP Chowdhary, invoking Article 121 which was seconded by Nishikant Dubey.

MP Moitra also spoke on the economic situation in the country especially after the mismanaged lockdown in the wake of the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic. She pointed out that an audacious misplaced confidence led the government to announce the lockdown at a notice of mere four hours, which led countless migrant workers to walk thousands of miles, without any money or food, with many dying. She stated that the economy is not in a V-shaped recovery, but a K-Shaped recovery where just super-rich one percent of the population continue to gather wealth and the bottom half of the economic pyramid getting crushed into destitution. She commented that it was ‘brazen audacity to declare economic rebound’ when the already paralyzed creeping economy was decimated and battered by the mismanaged approach to the pandemic, with there being effectively zero growth for 2 years. She specifically pointed out that growth, ‘which is known as a poverty alleviator’ has been absent for two years.

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MP Moitra stated imbued with anguish, that the courage and cowardice has gained new meanings under the Modi- regime, reflecting a cathartic response of the public who are not allowed to express their grievances. Referring to the observation of the journalist Elma Davis on the US, MP Moitra added that like the US, Indian democracy was not founded by cowards and hence the cowards cannot be expected to preserve it.

She spoke about the cowards, referring to the leaders & their associates of the current regime, ‘who hide behind the false bravado of authority, power, hate, bigotry, untruths, and dare to call it courage’. She also boldly added that the current regime has turned disinformation and propaganda into a cottage industry, referring to the “two rupees a tweet”-IT cell members propagating the one-sided false information peddled among the public.  Interestingly, many supporters of the Modi-regime feeling cornered over the traditional Social media under the barrage of criticisms in the aftermath of international celebrities raising concerns about the farmers’ protests, have started shifting to Koo, a purported Indian answer to Twitter.

MP Moitra also added that the biggest success of the current government has been the recasting of cowardice as courage. She further added that the government had shown cowardice by setting arbitrary parameters to decide who is or who is not the citizen, referring to the CAA-NRC system.  It is worthwhile to note that the system under the CAA- NRC especially the NPR has modalities that are similar to the Myanmar Citizenship law passed in 1982. That 1982 law sets up a hierarchy of associate citizens, naturalized citizens, and resident foreigners. This hierarchy was categorized with different-coloured identity cards for each status. It also has a parallel in the Songbun system of citizen categorization in North Korea, which decides the social services & government facilities provided to the different categories, with a discriminatory note. On the aspect of the Social Services, MP Moitra pointed out the poignant picture in India, where the expenditure is merely 2% of GDP for benefit transfers, which is at 20 % in the OECD countries and 6% in the Middle-income countries.

MP Moitra also highlighted the slow transformation of the largest democracy into a one-party police state, where jokes, tweets, protests, and unbiased reporting are not tolerated and people including opposition MPs are charged with Sedition (under section 124 A of IPC). She also pointed out the insecurities of various sections of citizens, especially the minorities, felt due to the diabolical regulations being brought in by the Modi government.

MP Mohua Moitra’s speech again proves that there will always be people and more importantly representatives of people, who would not be afraid to call out the wrong as wrong in troubled times. She had stated that India is currently in a state of undeclared emergency, and that the cowards are brave only with powers, referring to the leaders in the current government.  She had also pointed out that the Supreme Court has failed the citizens by not respecting the separation of powers (enunciated by Montesqueu) and that the majority of media has plummeted to new lows, with an absence of factual reporting or journalistic ethics, referring to the disclosed chats of Arnab Goswami. Her point cannot be simply ignored as there are many media houses that present a one-sided narrative which is far away from the truth in the real world. The fake news about the nano-chip in the new notes which circulated and was even covered by a prominent channel, in the backdrop of demonetization, is still fresh on the minds of many people.

Aficionados of deliberative assembly proceedings would find the speech by MP Moitra groundbreaking in many ways, as it raised questions that have been hanging as Damocle’s sword on the head of the GOI. It also had tonnes of fuel to tear apart the cerebrally insolvent all-praise chorus of the blind supporters of Modi.

MP Moitra also castigated the government as being cowards wielding power. Referring to the farmers’ protests, and the recent mahapanchayats, she also highlighted that the people who have descended from the leaders like Bhaghel Singh & JS Ahluwalia who had led their Misls to capture Delhi in  1783, need no lessons in Nationalism. Importantly, on the factual angle, she added that Haryana from where 10% of Indian Airforce personnel and 11% of Indian Navy-men originate should not be taught patriotism. This strongly augments the idea that people from places like Haryana, West UP & especially Punjab which not only are the home states of a large chunk of the defence personnel across different levels in army, navy & Airforce, but also the grounds from where Green revolution spread across India, will not tolerate any questioning of their loyalty to the nation. The assertions made by MP Moitra presented her as an adherent of the unbiased truth vanquishing the rancorous braggadocio of the leaders of the Modi-regime.

Presence of fearless and ruthless leaders like MP Moitra is needed in the current condition in India, with suppression of free voice rampant in the society, and more importantly in the parliament, where there are few voices in the opposition who speak out with facts and figures. It keeps the idea of India, founded on the principles condensed in the preamble, which consists of equality, fraternity, democratic republic with justice for all, alive, in the minds of fans of truth & freedom.