Mohua Moitra an Indian MP from All India Trinamool Congress from Krishnanagar, West Bengal is in news for her first speech in the Parliament. Moitra was an investment banker before she became a politician by winning her first election from the Karimpur assembly seat, West Bengal in 2016.

As an MLA, Moitra was one of the few Indian politicians to wage of a legal war against the Modi government’s surveillance efforts. She had filed three petitions which is pending before the Supreme Court. Her first petition was against the UIDAI’s attempts to map social media accounts to monitor popular sentiment through Aadhaar.

The second was against the Union home ministry’s notification that empowered ten government bodies to pre-emptively intercept monitor or decrypt any computer to prevent any cognisable offence and her third petition sought an interim stay on the Union government’s efforts to snoop into computers being used in West Bengal.

Moitra is in news since 25th June, Tuesday with her first speech at the Parliament. She slammed the present government of showing early traits of fascism.

Moitra won 2019 elections with a margin of 65,404 votes against BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey. She rocked the house by initially starting her speech by quoting Maulana Azad which said- “It is India’s historic destiny that many human races and culture 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.”

Thence after she started slamming the present government with the accusation of showing up ‘danger signs’ of fascism. She said it to be superficial, xenophobic, and narrow. “It is lust to divide, it is not a desire to unite.” She was loud and clear in pointing out ministers failed to show up with their graduation degree whereas, poor people living in this country for 50 years are being asked to produce a paper that could prove them to be an Indian citizen. She in her speech also said that the anti-immigration laws like the NRC and Citizenship Bill advocated by the government are being used to target one community, in particular, that is the Muslims.

Referring to the incident of Pehlu Khan of Rajasthan and Ansari of Jharkhand she charged the government of contempt for human rights, saying it to be “resounding disdain”.

Thirdly she took upon controlling of mass media stating “there is an unimaginable subjugation and controlling of mass media today”. She even accused TV channels to have spent a majority of time broadcasting the ruling party’s propaganda.

Obsession with national security and identification of enemies was also one of her acquisition. She said, “There is fear pervading everywhere”. Referring to it as ‘Kala bhoot’. She said that enemies are being created every day and in the last five years terrorist attacks have gone up, with an increase of 106% in the death of our jawans.

Taking up the NRC and Citizen Amendment Bill she said that religion and government are now intertwined in this country. Members of the Parliament are concerned mostly with 2.77 acres of Ram Janmabhoomi while (they seem to be unconcerned) by the 80crore acre that makes India.
She said that disdain for intellectuals and the art is a dangerous alarm. Moitra accused the government of manipulating secondary school textbooks too and doing everything possible to push back India to the ‘dark age’.

Last but not the least she lashed out on “erosion of independence in the electoral system.” She said the Election Commission was used to transfer key officials. The expenditure for the election was 60,000 crores of which 27,000crore was spent by one party.

After her unstoppable speech, she threw the ball to the other side of the court by saying “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 the upholders of this Constitution or do we want to be its poll bearers?”

She concluded her speech with Rahat Indori’s quote – “Jo aaj saahibe masand hain kal nahi honge, Kiraaydaar hain zaati maakan thodi hai, Sabhi ka khoon shaamil yahan ki mitti mein, Kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thodi hai?”