Mahua Moitra is a first-time, rookie member of the Lok Sabha who represents the constituency of Krishnanagar. Elected in 2019, she is notorious for her ill-advised remarks and also fancies herself as quite the champion of the people. A little dive into her history will reveal her deeply capitalist past of working as an investment banker for JPMorgan Chase, but that’s an inconvenient truth that isn’t in line with the quasi-socialist rhetoric Moitra espouses today.
Anyway, Mahua Moitra has carved herself a niche in the hearts of social media liberals, with her terminally online style of tweets. Ever ready to dish out her opinions on any given outrage-of-the-day issue, it is not surprising that she has accumulated a whole host of cringe and stupid tweets to her name. In this report, OpIndia goes over some of her greatest hits, or rather, greatest misses.
The list isn’t in any particular order, partly because we didn’t have it in us to be able to “rank” Moitra’s tweets on the basis of sheer stupidity and cringe-worthiness. So, this list can be viewed just as Mahua Moitra’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ on Twitter.
Calling Brahmins “Chotiwala Rakshasha’
One really does not have to go back far in order to see a prime example of a stupid Mahua Moitra tweet, which borders on anti-Hindu bigotry. Just two days ago, Moitra referred to Giriraj Singh’s gotra as “Chotiwala Rakshasha”. To explain the meaning of this phrase, “Chotiwalas” refers to devout Brahmin observers of Hinduism who follow the Shikha tradition of Brahmins, and a “Rakshasha” which literally translates to monsters.
Also in the same tweet, Moitra is “proud” of the fact that Giriraj Singh accuses Mamata Banerjee of being from the “Rohingya clan” i.e. siding with illegal migrants. That’s kind of weird, being “proud” of being referred to as a non-Indian ethnicity.
Union Minister Giriraj Says Mamata’s from ‘Rohingya Clan’
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 31, 2021
Proud of it.
Far better than being from the Chotiwala Rakshasa Clan!
2.) Hypocrisy regarding Mamata’s religious pandering
Mahua Moitra has time and again condemned the BJP for, “creating an impression that there was a nameless, faceless enemy coming” for Hindus. In fact, she has gone as far as to say that, “I nor anyone from my family, ever felt it necessary to assert or to tattoo the fact on our foreheads that we are Hindus or Brahmins.”
However, despite these supposed beliefs, Moitra could not stop gleefully cheering for Mamata’s March 10 Nandigram rally comments. At this rally, Mamata Banerjee explicitly referred to her Hindu and Brahmin heritage, saying, “I would like to tell him that I belong to a Brahmin family and he should not play the religion card with me. Don’t teach Hindu dharma to me.”
Moitra has no issues with Mamata Banerjee reciting shlokas, citing her Brahmin heritage, re-asserting her Hinduness, as long as all of it is done in the service of defeating the BJP; a classic hypocrite without principles.
Chanting several shlokas, Mamatadi says in Nandigram yesterday – “You want to teach me Hinduism? You really want to play that game with me? Think again.
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 10, 2021
So proud of my boss who always takes @BJP bull by the horns!
Suggesting that U.P. CM lacks jurisdiction to govern his own state
Moitra usually gets so angry whilst she writes her tweets, that her anger does tend to have some spillover effect on her tweets. After witnessing CM Yogi Adityanath issuing orders to clear out ‘farmer protest’ sites in the aftermath of the heinous violence at Red Fort on January 26th, Moitra apparently could not control her anger and had to put a tweet out.
The tweet is histrionic because of its cringe and idiocy. Chief Ministers do actually have the power to run their states and issue orders to protect peace and stability in their respective states. Unless you’re a child, it does not need to be explained that violent protests are not valid, not just in India, but in any free, fair democracy in the world. In the aftermath of a violent riot that saw the desecration of the Tricolor at Red Fort, what CM Yogi did was legally valid.
How dare a rabid rightwinger with a history of instigating violence himself instruct UP admin to empty borders?
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) January 28, 2021
Borders do not belong to you Mister Chief Minister – we are free to sit, stand, walk, breathe peacefully there
Engaging in inane political battles online as India was reeling from Republic Day violence
As India was still reeling from the violent riot at Red Fort on Republic Day, mourning the desecration of our Tiranga, Moitra inside her online Twitter cocoon was still raging at the BJP. She called the violent attack on our Nation’s heart and the desecration of our National flag an “I-told-you-so battle” victory for the BJP.
Clearly, Moitra is incapable of being the bigger person, not even tweeting once in order to condemn the violence that took place at the Red Fort on January 26. In times of a crisis, partisan politics was more important to Mahua Moitra than national solidarity. Additionally, the irony of writing “Long Live the Republic” in order to serve the interests of the people tearing down the flag of the Republic is not lost on us.
Sorry @BJP- you may have won the I-Told-You-So battle yesterday but not the moral war
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) January 27, 2021
The farmer fight is far from over. Long Live This Republic
Casual Hinduphobia in order to smear CM Yogi Adityanath
If there is to be a catalog for Mahua Moitra’s worst tweets, casual anti-Hindu bigotry will make its appearance more often than not. In yet another attack on CM Yogi Adityanath and the people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Moitra refers to the people of U.P. as a “Vanar Sena commune”.
With her tweet, Moitra insulted the Vanar Sena or the army of monkeys that accompanied Lord Rama and his brother Lakshman on their way to Lanka and which also played a pivotal role in defeating Ravan’s humongous army. Moitra also insulted the sentiments of Hindus who venerate the army of monkeys for assisting Lord Rama in the pursuit to find his abducted wife. Hindus hold the army of monkeys in high regard, especially for their leader Lord Hanuman, who is revered as Lord Rama’s supreme devotee and is also worshipped as a God.
Not to mention, there have been umpteen incidents of violence reported in West Bengal when people not conforming to the TMC worldview are harassed, hounded, and subsequently killed.
So Yogi CM comes to WB today, says he will kill “TMC goondas” one by one
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 16, 2021
Gudduji – listen up – your thok do culture may work in the vanar sena commune you ruled, doesn’t work here.
CAA-related cringe, because of course!
This list really couldn’t have been complete if there was not a single Citizenship Amendment Act-related bad take from Mahua Moitra in it. Fortunately for us, Moitra does not fail to deliver when it comes to fearmongering about the CAA. In a tweet, she attacks the BJP for daring to talk about implementing a national law in an Indian state.
Mahua tries to take a dig at the BJP with her snarky tweet, but while doing so, she ends up exposing her own stupidity when she claims that she wouldn’t be furnishing her papers for the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill does not affect the citizens of India and it has no provisions to either disenfranchise the Indian nationals or curtail their fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Neither does it concern the deportation of any foreigner from the country. It only concerns persecuted minorities who have fled the neighboring three countries and have sought asylum in India.
However, we can guess that an overly educated, former investment banker at JPMorgan like Mahua Moitra is already aware of this. Why does she tell her followers the opposite? It’s not for us to speculate.
JP Nadda in WB – says CAA to be implemented soon
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 19, 2020
Listen up @BJP – we will show you the door long before we show you our papers!
Failing to understand Parliamentary democracy
Mahua Moitra, who fancies herself as the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of India, once suggested on Twitter that street power was more important than having a majority in the Parliament. If India did not have a whole democratic system, with directly elected representatives of geographical constituencies going to the Lok Sabha in order to represent the will of the Indian people, Mahua Moitra might’ve had a point. However, that is not the case.
The message Mahua Moitra is trying to send through this tweet is clear. The strength in the Parliament does not matter, elections do not matter, even voting does not. What matters is the capability of community or interest groups to hold the state ransom in order to ensure that legislation is passed in their favor. If legislations are going to be decided on the streets, then what is even the point of holding elections?
Mahua Moitra does not have the answer to that question, and that is why she is more involved in writing performative liberal tweets on Twitter instead.
No half-way house
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) December 9, 2020
Full repeal or nothing
Brute majority in parliament isn’t power on the streets, #ModiShah
Mahua Moitra is not an unpopular politician, she is indeed quite popular with the urbanite liberals of India. Moitra’s way of doing politics, which is very online-centric, added with her generally liberal attitudes because of Western education, she really is the toast of the town for disaffected Indian liberals. In many ways, Mahua Moitra encapsulates the future of Indian liberalism, which will be more and more culturally influenced by the West.
So, if Mahua Moitra truly is the future of Indian liberalism. We don’t have anything to be worried about do we?