Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has reached out to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, requesting immediate intervention regarding her eviction from a circuit house in Krishnanagar. The incident occurred late on Friday night, and Moitra has labeled it a violation of her rights and a potential threat to her safety.
She alleged that the district administration of West Bengal’s Nadia then ordered her to vacate the premises late at night, further adding that a large crowd had gathered outside the premises shouting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans after she refused to leave. The Nazareth deputy collector of Nadia sent an order at 10:52pm stating that the circuit house would not be available for use from the evening of August 14 due to annual upkeep and maintenance. She had returned to her constituency after the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Thursday and checked into the local circuit house at 6:15pm, according to Moitra.
“Their allegations are baseless. That is even higher than the Chief Secretary of a state, or a Chief Minister of a Union Territory. Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Abhishek Banerjee criticised the incident, saying that the BJP talks about women empowerment and then uses the power of the state to intimidate and suppress a woman who is opposing them. “You cannot celebrate Nari Shakti on a stage and use the power of the State to intimidate a woman who challenges you. That is not authority. That is insecurity. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, reacting to the episode, asked the Speaker to clarify whether the treatment of Moitra amounted to a violation of parliamentary privilege. His remarks directly echoed Moitra’s request to Birla to examine the incident and take steps to protect the dignity and rights of MPs. “Is this what they claim to respect women? The same PM who speaks of Nari Shakti from the Red Fort?
In the letter addressed to the Lok Sabha Speaker, she said, “The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its Order of Preference, ranks MPs at number 21.
Dilip Ghosh, a minister in the West Bengal cabinet, called the allegations baseless and said that opposition to Moitra and her party was not new. Even when their government was in power, the people there used to oppose them, and people from their own party used to oppose them and complain,” said Ghosh. “An MP, when she is visiting her constituency, is supposed to be accommodated in the Circuit House, and cannot be asked to vacate,” she added. Congress MP Pawan Khera said on Friday in a post on X, “A sitting woman MP is being forced to vacate the circuit house in the middle of the night while there is a baying mob waiting for her outside,” urging the Union home minister, prime minister and West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari to ensure her safety. And when a government becomes so insecure that even basic dignity becomes political, it is the government that diminishes itself, not the woman it seeks to humiliate,” he said. Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] MP John Brittas called the incident “unacceptable and deplorable”, urging Birla to intervene at the earliest. Rules, protocol and basic dignity thrown to the wind,” he said on X.
