This past week week during the ongoing Budget Session Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra outdid herself by mouthing the expletive “Ha#am#” in Parliament and then unapologetically defending the act in interviews to her friends in media.
The former JP Morgan investment banker refused to even acknowledge that the word was inappropriate for use in an exalted place like the Parliament. And that she might have gone overboard in her anger.
Moitra’s tendency to lose her cool and give shrill speeches in the Parliament is so legendary, that last year, the presiding officer had to remind her to “speak with love, not anger”.
Following the script of another hot-headed leader Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, the belligerent Moitra insisted that “Ha#am#” is not even an expletive. When Raut had used the word to insult Kangana Ranaut, in his defence he said in Marathi the word meant “naughty”. Moitra in the same vein stated that the word meant “sinner” and there was nothing unparliamentary about it.
The Economics and Mathematics graduate from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in US has the distinct quality of not backing off when she crosses the line.
Her impressive CV, her exposure to elite institutions notwithstanding, her track record can be at best described as attention-seeking and at worst uncouth.
All the gossamer thin handwoven saris, extra-large goggles and the occasional Louis Vuitton bag cannot couch her lack of decency, the crassness she displays with striking regularity.
Evidently, Moitra is stopping not at “Ha#am*”. Her rather nascent public life is replete with instances that prove elite education doesn’t essentially make one sensitive.
First, during an interview to an anchor, a fuming Mahua Moitra showed him the middle finger on air. The antics were on full display for the whole country to watch on national television.
Second, exposing her delinquent tendencies, Moitra 2 years back was caught on camera making paper balls and throwing it at the Speaker during a protest by the Opposition in the Parliament.
Third,in 2018, while leading a party delegation to Assam to inspect NRC development, she earned the dubious distinction of slapping a female cop when she was stopped at the airport.
Fourth, she didn’t even leave the Gods alone. She raked up a major controversy by calling Kali an alcohol consuming, meat eating goddess at media event, causing much embarrassment for her party and hurting the sentiments of several Hindus.
Fifth, dissed stringers and journalists by calling them “2 paisa media”.
Sixth, in May, 2021, she called India a ‘Susu Potty Republic’ when Delhi Police raided Twitter Office to investigate a rather serious matter like – classifying a tweet by BJP spokesperson as “manipulated media”. Now, following Twitter files revelations and the Oversight committee hearing of former Twitter executive, we know that Twitter used arbitrary filters to censor right-wing voices in the US.
The list by no means is exhaustive. And going by Mahua’s knack for theatrics and courting controversies, there is no guarantee that it will not get longer in the coming times.