Even after two terms in power, with an exceptional majority, the Bharatiya Janata Party hasn't shed its underdog mentality. They still like to go for the jugular when some blows can do the job. It may not be the smartest thing to do as the curious case of Mahua Moitra has recently demonstrated.
The opposition is calling out the ruling party and its allies for misusing their numbers in the parliament.
The process of Moitra's expulsion, despite going by the rulebook, is a bit problematic in principle. The biggest issue, however, is that of the parliament ascribing itself the power to investigate corruption and misuse of privilege allegations, bypassing the courts or even any form of judicial oversight. Late BJP minister and leader Arun Jaitley had decried this when the BJP was in the opposition. Besides, the BJP should have learnt a lesson from the embarrassment they faced after the Supreme Court restored Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary membership not so long ago.
Moitra's expulsion from the parliament is a pyrrhic victory for the BJP as she's emerging to be their biggest critic, if media headlines are to be believed. She's now the poster girl of the anti-capitalist, anti-establishment movement in India and the BJP has only itself to congratulate for it.
Mahua Moitra is our newly-minted hero, a self-proclaimed incarnation of Goddess Durga despite the following:
1. Indulging in corporate cat-fight instead of a sustained ideological position against corruption
2. Insulting practically every ethnic/linguistic group (Jharkhandi, Gujju et al)
3. Insulting the majority of Indians
4. Making corruption - a moral and ethical issue - about scale
5. Reducing feminism to narcissism
6. Making all critics of the government or corporate malpractice appear as suspect
7. Taking the Indian voter for granted
Let's discuss each of these points individually in detail. But before that, a clear list of things that do not, should not matter.
- Moitra's drinking
- Moitra's smoking
- Moitra's clothes
- Moitra's partying
- Moitra's love and sex life
- Moitra's irreverence towards religion which has strangely now taken an absolute U-turn
In short, any aspects of Moitra's personal life
1. Indulging in corporate cat-fight instead of a sustained ideological position against corruption
A legislator going after a corporate giant's business practices should deserve all credit. That's what people's representatives ought to do: protect people from corporate greed and ensure a corruption-free business environment. However, trying to fight crony capitalism using a sponsored arsenal of a network of industrialists is corporate warfare, another reiteration of capitalism.
In September 2019, the left parties and Congress protested the proposed uranium mining in the Nallamala forest of Telangana. Not only did it threaten the life of Chenchus, a primitive tribe, but also the local socio-economic and environmental makeup of the region. The project was shelved by the Indian government in 2021, owing to the local people's movement. Revanth Reddy, the new CM of Telangana played an active role in the same and part credit for his victory goes to his engagement. When has Moitra ever been part of a people's movement? Including those against her declared arch-enemy, Adani and co.
It may appear to several of us, who have been staunch critics of this political regime's excesses, that what is happening is a witch-hunt. The question is - does Moitra represent the fiercest critic of Adani, or is that a media-manufactured image? The incongruity begins with the fact that to fight a corporate giant one needs a people's movement.
2. Insulting practically every ethnic/linguistic group (Jharkhandi, Gujju et al)
Moitra is fiercely aware and proud of her identity as a "Bengali woman who has a life". Does this, however, necessarily translate into sneers and snubs for the non-Bengalis? Moitra has called out the BJP's identity politics in the loudest words and rightly so. At the same time, she has indulged in similar identity politics and parochialism by using slurs to denigrate people from other parts of the country and even members of the press. Should we tolerate phrases like "Jharkhandi pitbull" or "2 paisa press" because they are hurled against people we may not like very much?
3. Insulting the majority of Indians
Moitra employing an army of interns, personal and research assistants, and dog-walkers and whoever she pleases with whom she shares her login credentials doesn't matter. However, to make a statement - in the capacity of a public representative in a country where unemployment rates are soaring high - that suggests most Indians are unfit to be her clerks and assistants reeks of not only elitism but also of dereliction of duty. If that indeed be the case, what has she done in her parliamentary constituency, with the help of her party's state government to change the status quo?
4. Making corruption - a moral and ethical issue - about scale
In a country where corruption cases involving a few hundred rupees drag on for decades and the swindling of thousands of crores goes unchallenged, any objective debate ought to follow a common minimum programme. Corruption is an issue of morality and ethics, not scale. It is, therefore, irrelevant whether she accepted cash from an industrialist or not. Moitra has admitted to receiving gift items and seeking secretarial help from Darshan Hiranandani. Whether Adani was attacked at Hiranandani's behest or not, can she absolve herself from the charge of conflict of interest? Interestingly, she has used the affidavit submitted by Hiranandani to defend herself. Is she, then, unwittingly providing legitimacy to his word?
Moitra's invitation to the CBI to "come, count my shoes" is, in principle, whatboutery. Moitra's sneer of elitism and her close personal friendships with industrialists do not match the image of a poster girl of social justice who can bring down crony capitalism.
5. Reducing feminism to narcissism
Yes, Moitra has been viciously attacked online for being an independent-minded woman and that should be condemned. It is shameful that she was questioned by the chairman of the ethics committee in a derogatory manner about her personal life. However, at every step, including her statement after expulsion, Moitra has chosen to make any criticism of herself as a parliamentarian about misogyny. That doesn't help either her cause or that of other women politicians. It is unlikely that the BJP would have treated her any differently had she been a man. Some of the most vicious, tasteless attacks of the BJP parliamentarians and leaders are directed against men.
CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat supports Moitra through her essay. Is it not, at some level, an exercise in collective narcissism where one is forced to support 'people like us'? Karat's party colleague Deblina Hembram, a first-time MLA, was beaten up by TMC MLAs in the West Bengal assembly in 2012. Nobody saw a similar essay from her then. Is solidarity to be only doled out along class and privilege lines?
6. Making all critics of the government or corporate malpractice appear as suspect
Thanks to Moitra's self-fashioning-ably aided by fawning media headlines - she can be mistaken as Adani's biggest critic, without leading a single on-ground campaign. No problem with that. Good luck, however, to every single individual who has dedicated their life to the cause of justice and equality. All of them stand suspects as being "funded" by one entity or the other. This government believes in tracing -and sometimes even confabulating - 'connections' and 'invisible hand' to delegitimise people's movements. The entire Moitra episode only strengthens this attitude.
7. Taking the Indian voter for granted
Believe it or not, the average Indian voter still wants to see their representative as a better, empowered version of themselves. This is also what leads most politicians to suppress or ignore them, once they are comfortably installed in the house. Moitra has proved to be the rule rather than the exception. To give her password to someone, not her staff, not in the country, to use to further his business interests, if not go after another corporate entity - that's dangerous territory. By taking refuge in arguments like "everyone does it", she has also taken the voters for granted.
Most media reports, both in Moitra's favour and against her, have followed the same template - 'The Lurid Love Life of Mahua Moitra'. It does not matter. What she does as a woman is her business, but her actions as a people's representative have a larger accountability price tag attached.
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.