Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday used a cuss word, qualifying as ‘unparliamentary language’ on the floor of the House in the Parliament during a debate on the ‘Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address’ in Lok Sabha.
Moitra was heard using an objectionable word to which the Chair objected and urged members to avoid cuss words. The House witnessed angry exchanges between TMC and BJP members soon after Moitra concluded her speech.
Moitra, however, remained defiant and stood by her statement. “I have called an apple, an apple.” she said. “This is a gentleman who called farmers pimps…The minister for urban development Hardeep Singh Puri in Rajya Sabha called Dr Santanu Sen an absolutely offensive term. This is not the first time that on record expletives or harsh words have been used in Parliament,” Moitra added.
Following the episode, Moitra has received flak on social media and from her counterparts for using the ‘H’ word.
A Twitter user, posting a clip of the video, wrote, “Mahua Moitra used the word ‘H’ in parliament today. You can have money, you can have power, you can have a political office, but none of that can cover up cheapness. Your true class always shows.” The hashtag of the ‘H’ word was also trending on Twitter.
BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri too slammed her and said that MPs should function within the decorum of the House. On Moitra’s defiance, actress-turned-MP of the saffron party Hema Malini, said, “There is no need to be so emotional”, adding “by nature, she must be like that.”
However, this is not the first time a woman politician is being criticised for the use of ‘unparliamentary language’ (note: she used the word off the record). In fact, women politicians have always been under scrutiny, not just for their conduct, but even for their choice of clothing in Parliament.
In 2019, actors-turned-politicians Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan, who opted for western attires on their first visit to the Parliament, were trolled online for their choice of clothing. Both the TMC MPs had won by huge margins.
Mimi, who had contested from Jadavpur, uploaded a photograph in which she is seen posing in front of Parliament, wearing a white shirt and a pair of denims, while Nusrat, TMC MP from Bashirhat, had opted for a wine coloured fitted ensemble — a pair of pants with a peplum zipped top — for her visit to Parliament.
Interestingly, the same lens is not applied to men politicians when they engage in “unparliamentary” words against their women counterparts. Although such words are expunged from records, if used in the Parliament, male lawmakers have often made sexist remarks in public forums.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil last year, while leading protests against the state government over the OBC reservation issue, had made a sexist comment against Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, saying, “If you don’t understand politics, go home and cook.”
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Kumar during an Assembly meeting was heard saying, “There is a saying. When rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it,” while Uttarakhand’s former Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat had his own “take” on women wearing ripped jeans.
In another instance, veteran BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya called Priyanka Gandhi ‘Chocolaty Face’ in 2019, while Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is now behind bars, had made derogatory remarks against actor-turned-BJP leader Jaya Prada.
“I brought her (Jaya Prada) to Rampur. You are a witness that I did not allow anyone to touch her body. It took you 17 years to identify her real face but I got to know in 17 days that she wears khaki underpant,” Khan had said while addressing a campaign rally in Rampur in 2020.