Mahua Moitra expulsion: Here's a look at her popular Lok Sabha speeches

Mahua Moitra was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and her maiden speech in the lower house of Parliament created a ripple bringing her to the limelight. The speech went viral not only because of its content but also for its fiery delivery as the ex-banker's oratory until then was limited to West Bengal.

Mahua Moitra's maiden speech on 7 early signs of fascism

India is moving towards fascism, Mahua Moitra said in her first-ever speech in the Lok Sabha. "The first sign is this. There is the powerful and continuing nationalism that is searing into our national fabric. It is superficial, it is xenophobic...The second sign: There is a resounding disdain for human rights that is permeating every level of the government. There has been a 10-fold increase in the number of hate crimes between 2014 and 2019. It is like the valuation of an e-commerce start-up. There are forces in this country that are sitting there just pushing this number up. The lynching of citizens in broad daylight is being condoned from Shri Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan last year to Shri Ansari in Jharkhand yesterday, the list is not stopping," Mahua said.

"The third sign: There is an unimaginable subjugation and controlling of mass media today. Five of the largest news media organisations in India are today either indirectly controlled or indirectly indebted to one man in this country. TV channels spread a majority of airtime broadcasting propaganda for the ruling party, coverage of every opposition party is cut out.

"The fourth sign: There is an obsession with the national security… When we were children, my mother would say, “Do this and do that, otherwise, kala bhoot will come”. It is as though all of us in this country are today in fear of nameless, shameless ‘kala bhoot’.

"The fifth sign: Religion and government are now intertwined in this country. Do I even need to speak about it? Neither should I remind you that we have redefined what it means to be a citizen. With the NRC and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, we are making sure that it is only one community that is the target of anti-immigration laws.

"The sixth and the most dangerous sign: There is a complete disdain for intellectuals and the arts. There is a suppression of all dissent. Funding is being cut for liberal education. Scientific temperament is enshrined in article 51 of the Constitution.

"The seventh and the last sign is there is an erosion of independence in our electoral system. The Election Commission is being used to transfer key officials. ₹60,000 crore were spent on this election of which ₹27,000 crore, 50 per cent, were spent by one party," Mahua Moitra said.

Mahua Moitra's 2020 speech on CAA

"“...You have betrayed the very citizens who voted for you. You did not come to power on the vote of the Hindu right alone. You came to power because of a very large section of ordinary people. The aspirational middle-of-the-road voters cast aside whatever reservations they might have had about your past, and believed you when you said 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas', which they took to mean development for a united India. They believed in your alternative narrative of merit, of transparency, of a world without nepotism.

"The NPR, the NRC and the CAA are all tools in the Machiavellian design to first mark out, then disenfranchise and finally annihilate. This is the biggest betrayal of those who voted for you. Nobody wanted to be a part of this 'us versus them' debate. My friends who voted for you are horrified by what is happening in their name under your watch. As every election comes and goes, your members demonise dissent, exhorting your supporters to shoot people who stand up to you," Mahua Moitra said in the Lok Sabha.

Mahua Moitra's 'coward wielding power' speech in 2021

"If the government has brought the farm laws which are not acceptable to people then either the government will repeal the laws or the people will vote the government out. We urgently need the sagacity and the courage shown by the High Courts during the emergency when they delivered the A.D.M Jabalpur and like decisions. The supreme court, unfortunately, spilling the common citizen and is being perceived as protecting the privilege and ironically only itself.

"A very large section of the Indian media has plummeted to new deaths both in terms of lack of factual reporting as well as the total absence of journalistic ethics and yet, even when the bar is so low the WhatsApp chat leaks detailing correspondence between a large government leading media channel and the head of the TV ratings agency expose the utter filth and the chronic capitalism that ironically this government claim to be saving us from. What is left of the resilient media is being targeted with the provisions of the UAPA and other draconian laws.

"You keep taunting Congress about the emergency but India today is in a state of an undeclared emergency, but the government has miscalculated there is a fundamental difference between cowardice and courage. The coward is brave only when armed with power and authority the truly courageous can fight even when unarmed. Do not forget this. Do not forget this when you tell the authorities in Ghaziabad to clear the protest site overnight with the help of police and the bureaucracy. You are not being courageous, you are a coward wielding power, the truly brave came on roads from villages wielding nothing but the belief that their cause is just. They were propelled by the spontaneous tears of their leader, not by the force of their water cannons. Do not forget this when you block the roads and cut the internet off in 17 of Haryana’s districts. You are not being brave, you are a coward wielding power.

"The state of Haryana gives 10% of the Indian air force and contributes to 11% of the total Indian navy. Its people can neither be termed as anti-national nor terrorist nor Gaddars (disloyal). Do not forget this when a peaceful 60-day movement is insidiously hijacked and then you slap FIR on Punjab’s farmers. You are not being courageous you are a coward wielding power. Baghel Singh and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia leading their missiles captured Delhi way back in 1783 from the Mughals, their descendants do not lead a lesson of courage from those who captured Delhi only in 2014," Mahua Moitra said.

Mahua Moitra's 'who is the real Pappu?' speech of 2022

In a Lok Sabha debate in the winter session of Parliament in 2022, Mahua Moitra assailed the government on economy and quoted author Jonathan Swift as she accused the government of "spreading falsehood". "As the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has believers. And it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it," she said.

"This government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu. You use it to denigrate and signify extreme incompetence. But the statistics tell us who the actual Pappu is," Mahua Moitra said.

Mahua Moitra's 'Adani remote control' speech in February 2023

"I want to talk about the most famous person in India today. Unfortunately, for this House, it is not the honourable Prime Minister. It's a man whose name starts with an A and ends with an I. And no, it's not Advani. For the purposes of this speech, let's just call him Mr A and his group A company.

"Honourable Prime Minister, this man Mr A has topi-topi-pehnau-ed you. He travels with you on your delegation. He meets heads of states on visits to India. He portrays that India is the prime minister and the prime minister is him. He makes it appear to the world that he is the remote control behind the prime minister and by obliging him will be obliging the prime minister," Mahua Moitra said.

'Anyone but Modi' speech on Manipur in no-confidence motion in 2023

“India has lost confidence in you. The spectacle of the prime minister of the greatest democracy bowing to religious Seers of a majority in the chamber of the new Parliament fills us with shame, police manhandling and filing FIRs against champion wrestlers fills us with shame, 50 panchayats in 3 districts of BJP-ruled Haryana issuing letters forbidding Muslim traders entering the state fills us with shame. 'Nafrato ki jung mein ab dekho kya kya ho gaya, sabziya Hindu hui aur bakhra Musalmaan ho gaya'. We are not going to be bullied. Mamata di is not scared, Stalin is not scared, Akhilesh ji is not scared, Rahul Gandhi is not scared. One crony capitalist is not going to make a monkey out of India's regulators and Equity markets while we watch. Everyone asks if not Modiji then who? After this inaction on Manipur, India will say, anyone but Modi,” Mahua Moitra said.