Hon. Speaker, Sir, and my esteemed colleagues in the 18th Lok Sabha, I stand here on behalf of my Party. … Hon. Prime Minister, I would really request you, since you have been here for the better half of one hour. सर, यह भी सन ु तेहुए जाइए, डररए मत। … आप दो बार आए। You came to my area twice during the campaign. सर, आज तो सन ु तेजाइए। Never mind! It is my bad luck. … Hon. Speaker, Sir, and my esteemed colleagues in this newly constituted 18th Lok Sabha, I stand here on behalf of my Party, the All India Trinamool Congress. … कोई बात नहीं, वह मेरे एलओपी हैं। वह ऑलरडे ी मझु ेसन ु चक ु ेहैं। … Hon. Speaker, Sir, and my esteemed colleagues in this newly constituted 18th Lok Sabha, I stand here on behalf of my Party, the All India Trinamool Congress, to speak on the Motion of Thanks on the hon. President’s Address. … The last time I stood here, I was not allowed to speak. … I was not allowed to speak. But the Ruling Party has paid a very heavy price for throttling the voice of one MP. …. मझु ेिैठािे के िक्कर में जिता िे आिके 63 सदस्यों को िरमािेंटिी िैठा कदया। You have gone down from 303 to 240 seats. In my maiden speech in the Lok Sabha in June 2019, I spoke on the seven signs of fascism that were taking over this country. Five years to the date, on 27th June, 2024 this House saw the unprecedented scene of the Marshals welcoming the hon. President of India with the Sengol in their hand. The Sengol is a symbol of the supreme authority of a monarch. It has no place in the temple of a Constitutional democracy. But it is understandable why this happened because the BJP has still not understood that their 303 brute majority, their rajtantra has been reduced to a 240- seat minority by the loktantra. They are still living in the world of the Sengol! This sudden changed reality, this new reality, is yet to sync in for the Treasury Benches, and especially for the speech writers of the hon. President’s Address. In the speech that the hon. President read out, she said, the people of India has elected a stable Government with a clear majority. Please do not embarrass the office of the President by using poorly edited cut and paste versions of old speeches. This is not a stable Government. It depends on multiple allies with a history of U-turns. It has not got a simple majority. The BJP is 32 short of 272. It is going to be a very hard landing for the Treasury Benches as was obvious today. There are 234 warriors this time, firmly united, and we have walked through fire to walk through these doors. So, you will not be able to shut us up this time the way you did last time. There are numerous statements in the hon. President’s Address that defy even a tenuous link to truth and to reality. Like in my 2019 maiden speech when I spoke on seven signs, today I have picked out six themes from the hon. President’s Address and I will analyse how each of them is an exercise in fallacy and an exercise in untruth. The Address covers many issues, but I have chosen six themes. The first theme is the North-East. The hon. President’s Address says that the Government has increased allocation for the North-East by four times, and has worked for increased and lasting peace in the area. Now, I have one question. Why is the word ‘Manipur’ nowhere in the Speech? Why do we refer to the generic North-East? … During the Lok Sabha campaigns, the BJP, the Ruling Party and the hon. Prime Minister mentioned many words beginning with the letter ‘M’ – Musalman, Mullah, Madrassa, Mughal, Mutton, Machhli, Mujra, Mangalsutra, but not once did they mention Manipur.. We do not need to act East. The Government says that we want to Act East. We do not need you to Act East. Look East, walk East, and the most important point is, embrace East. I stand here for my brothers and sisters of Manipur, and I quote the revolutionary poet Pablo Neruda. He says, “One morning the bonfires leapt out of the Earth devouring human beings – and from then on the fire, from then on blood, come, see the blood on the streets. Come see the blood on the streets.” Please go to Manipur. See the blood on the streets. The second theme in the President’s Address is women’s empowerment. The speech says that women in our country had been demanding greater representation in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas and today, they stand empowered by the enactment of Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. This is a complete untruth. Firstly, you conveniently delayed reservation for women in Parliament because you actually fear women. You fear nari shakti. You want their support but you certainly do not want us here. The 17th Lok Sabha had 78 women, that is 14.3 per cent. The 18th Lok Sabha, this Lok Sabha, has only 74 women, four women less than last time, that is only 13.6 per cent. The Ruling Party, BJP had called a Special Session to bring in the Women’s Reservation Bill. They have got a shameful number of 30 women MPs out of 240, that is only 12.5 per cent. It is only Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress that in 2019 had 37 per cent women MPs, and even this time it has got 38 per cent women MPs. The President’s Address talks of a comprehensive campaign by the Government to enrich and make three crore women Lakhpati Didis. All that we have seen so far is a far more comprehensive campaign to make one arabpati dada. I am sure, I do not need to take his name in this House. I am sure, we all know who we are talking about. The third theme is Kashmir. The Address mentions that after decades of shutdowns and strikes, the Kashmir Valley has voted in an atmosphere of stability and security. But if abrogating Article 370 was such a good idea, why did the Ruling Party, the BJP not even dare to put up candidates in the three Valley seats of Anantnag, Baramulla and Srinagar? If Article 370 was such a big deal and you were going to campaign on the basis of Article 370, you did not even dare to fight the seats. The Kashmir Valley has voted in MPs who were against your 2019 decision. You downgraded Ladakh into a Union Territory. You told them that it was a temporary move. Today, five years later, the Ladakhis are still waiting. They have not got back their statehood. You have not given them a legislature. You have not included them in the Sixth Schedule. You have not fulfilled their demand of two separate seats of Leh and Kargil. As a result, in the current Lok Sabha, the Ladakhis have relegated you to third position in the Lok Sabha. You lost it. The fourth theme in the hon. President’s Address is the Election Commission of India. The speech expresses gratitude to the ECI for conducting the largest election in the world. With all humility, with no intent to denigrate the office of what used to be the august constitutional body of this land, let us as Members of the Opposition put on record that we won in spite of the EC not because of it. The Commissioners chosen by a Government-dominated panel, in wilful disobedience of the Supreme Court, turned a deaf year to the most egregious violations of the Model Code of Conduct by the Ruling Party, by the hon. Prime Minister with his hate-filled speeches and his divisive religion-based rage rhetoric. This country has been ashamed and disgusted by the language used against minorities during this campaign. This election will go down in history where an eager and compliant Election Commission turned a blind eye and a deaf ear against the excesses of the Ruling Party when the MCC was in effect. Opposition leaders were arrested. Party accounts were frozen. The ED and CBI even came into our election offices with impunity. Ultimately the voters took charge and they said, बहुत हो गया; enough is enough. The fifth theme is — here I have to commend the speech writers for having a very dark, almost macabre sense of humour – the Indian Railways, aviation, and infrastructure. The Address says that work on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train is going on at a fast pace and Indian Railways is doing feasibility studies for bullet train corridors in the North, in the South and in the East of India. I would like to ask a question to the Government, through you, hon. Chairperson. Is this a cruel joke? You are sanctioning Rs.1,08,000 crore for one single Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. A basic high-speed rail network costs Rs.200 crore per kilometre. The Indian Railways is touting the Kavach, anti-collision system – it is an automatic train protection system – as the cheapest in the world. It says the cost is Rs.50 lakh per kilometre. The total rail tracks in India are roughly about 1,26,000 kilometres. So, covering all of India with Kavach is going to cost Rs.63,000 crore. All of India’s KAVACH costs Rs. 63,000 crore and one single Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train costs Rs. 1,08,000 crore. Please look at their numbers. Last June, in Balasore, three trains collided and 296 people died. The Ministry said that KAVACH was not operational on that route. Last week, Kanchenjunga Express collided with a goods train in New Jalpaiguri and ten people died. Again, the Ministry said that KAVACH is not operational on the route. The Economic Times had a survey which said that with the current level of funding, it will take fifty years for all of India to be covered under KAVACH. And you are telling us about bullet trains. Please do not start shouting about what it was during Nehru’s time. We do not know and we do not care. False equivalences cannot take the place of real body bags. The Address mentions about how India is apparently the third largest domestic aviation hub of the world. In truth, India’s airports have become domestic hazard hubs — first in Jabalpur; then in Delhi; and then in Rajkot – – newly-constructed airports’ canopies falling down killing people. The newly-constructed Ram Path in Ayodhya has had three cave-ins in the last week. The Pragati Maidan tunnel is flooded. The Atal Setu has developed cracks. The Ram Temple’s roof is leaking. This is exactly what happens when infrastructure is poorly planned and rushed in order for photo opportunities by the supreme leaders. The sixth theme is competitive cooperative federalism. Hon. Chairperson, Sir, the last decade saw the most brutal Governmentsponsored throttling of cooperative federalism that this country has ever seen. I speak for my own State of West Bengal. The Centre has withheld Rs. 7000 crore in MGNREGA funds and seventeen lakh households have been deprived for work already done. It has held back Rs. 8200 crore under the rural housing scheme over eleven lakh houses, sanctioned but not paid. Another Rs. 1000 crore has been held back in pension and PMGSY. It is a total of Rs. 16,000 crore. When we went to meet the Rural Development Minister, we were dragged out by the Delhi Police and bundled into prison vans. Last week, as a delegation, we went to meet with Ms. Atishi of the AAP, who was on a hunger strike. Look at what is happening to the AAP Government in Delhi today. The Aam Aadmi Party is in power in Delhi. There was a 1994 Water Sharing Agreement which mandated Haryana to release 613 million gallons of water per day to Delhi. Haryana is run by the BJP Government and they have reneged on this Agreement. They are releasing 100 million gallons of less water per day, as a result of which 28 lakh people in Delhi are having to go without water every day. This Government’s competitive cooperative federalism seems to be an exercise in how to compete and on how to choke Opposition-run States. … भईया, हमको बैठाना आपको बहुत भारी पड़ा। हमको मत बैठाइए। आप पर बहुत भारी पड़ा है। … The Government spent the first five years in almost perfecting an elected autocracy, and by the end of 2023, this Government had reached the pinnacle of their arrogance. This parliamentary democracy was replaced by a monstrous super cult — the cult of the supreme leader, the non-biological leader born of the paramatma who stood in this House and proclaimed, ‘अब की बार 400 पार और एक अकेला ककतनों पर भारी पड़ा’। This was the turning point when the destiny of the Ruling Party changed. Whether in Greek Mythology or whether in Indian mythology, if you act with arrogance towards the Gods, you will be punished. We have thirty-three crore Gods in India. But in our democracy, the most supreme of them is the ‘गण देवता’ – the Lord of the People. And they have punished you. You may have formed the Government again but yours is a pyrrhic victory – a victory which inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to a defeat. In Bengal, the supreme leader started his Vijay Sankalp Yatra on 1st March in the constituency of Arambag. Then he came to Krishnanagar, and then came to Barasat, and then ended the yatra on May 29in Kolkata. उन्होंनेमेरेऊपर तो कवशेष कृपा की और दो-दोबार आए। The BJP lost all these seats. Hon. Prime Minister did 23 campaign meetings in Bengal and lost in 20 seats. In Maharashtra, the hon. Prime Minister campaigned in 18 seats. The NDA lost in 15 of them. ‘एक अकेला, ककतनों पर भारी पड़ा।’ In Punjab, he campaigned in Hoshiarpur, in Jalandhar, in Patiala and in Gurudaspur, the BJP lost all the four seats. ‘एक अकेला, ककतनों पर भारी पड़ा।’ In Rajasthan, he campaigned in Banswara with the most disgraceful references to Muslims in outright violation of the law. The EC kept quiet. Not only did the BJP lost Banswara by over two lakh votes, the BJP which had won 25/25 in 2019 and won the State Government elections only months ago, came down to 14 seats. ‘एक अकेला, ककतनों पर भारी पड़ा।’ Three States Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bengal account for 170 seats. That is exactly one-third of India. The BJP won in only 54 of them. ‘एक अकेला, ककतनों पर भारी पड़ा।’ In 2019, the hon. Prime Minister had taunted the now Leader of Opposition by saying that he must have used a microscope to find that one single seat in India where the minority were in majority. Hon. Chairperson, Sir, it is so ironic that today the majority needed no microscope to turn the BJP into a minority. जहाां-जहाां भी मैजोररटी है, आप वहीं माईनोररटी बन गए। आप तो घसु-घसु कर मारनेवालेथे, लेककन जनता नेघसु-घसु कर मार कदया। The Treasury Benches have always claimed that the Opposition lacked in hardwork and in merit. We are all part of a parivaarwaad. We are dynasts whereas they are proud to be part of a meritocracy. They are proud to be part of a ‘Modi ka parivaar’. How ironic is it today that 20 Ministers in the Union Cabinet are dynasts! How ironic is it that the hon. Prime Minister has to take to social media himself to tell people that no, it is not ‘Modi ka parivaar’ – it is NDA, the Nitish-Naidu Dependent Alliance. In January, the hon. Prime Minister consecrated the unfinished Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He said he was tasked with the divine duty of bringing Ram Lalla home. The Ram Mandir was going to ensure that not only would the BJP cross 400 seats but that this Government would last a thousand years. The last time in history that we heard of a thousand year vision was during the Third Reich. This was the second time that we heard of it. But then ultimately, Lord Ram said, “Stop, not in my name.” Ati Darpe hata Lanka. Too much arrogance, too much pride caused Ravana to lose the Kingdom of Lanka. The BJP lost Ayodhya, Faizabad where the temple is. It lost in Banda, Chitrakoot where Ram meditated. It lost in Shravasti where the son of the hon. Prime Minister’s Ex-Secretary said my father has built the temple, campaigned in his name. You lost there. All the seats around Ayodhya, Basti, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar, the BJP lost. ‘येतमु लोगों के नाम जपनेमेंपहलेसा आराम नहीं। जबरदस्ती के जय श्री राम मेंसब कुछ है, पर राम नहीं।’ Today, in India, there are two types of leaders. Those of us who come by the voting machine and then, there are many who come by the washing machine. There are still people who say, wait, wait, you do not know Modi Ji, wait six months and see. The BJP will get 300 members. To them, I say, no, this will not happen this time because every potential turncoat will have to choose between temporary greed or fear and between permanently becoming politically irrelevant. So, you can accept a temporary offer of a Ministry, you can accept a temporary settlement of an existing trumped-up CBI or ED case and you can switch parties but when you go back to the electorate, the electorate will punish you. Most turncoats have been punished by the electorate. Also, this time, INDIA has very large solid block components. The Congress has 100 seats; SP has 37 seats; Trinamool has 29 seats, DMK has 22 seats; NCP and UBTA has 17 seats. So, this is not a rag tag bunch of Members that you can lure away. This is a solid block. So, yes, it is a question of time but the question is not whether they will get 300 seats. The question is when people will join us and we will cross 272 seats. The ruling party’s politics has always been along the lines of religious hate and ethnic divisiveness. But even if at the height of their power when they got 303 seats, one out of every two Hindus had not voted for BJP. This time, even in their core Hindi heartland, their core voters deserted them. Over 250 of them called the Muslims in India as infiltrators and terrorists in the land of their birth. But they waited silently, patiently and bided their time and in one voice during the election in every State, they stood up and told the Government and I am quoting the poet, Shri Puneet Sharma: “कहन्दस्ुतान सेमेरा सीधा ररश्ता है, तमु कौन हो ब, े तमु कौन हो ब,े क्यों बतलाऊ तमुको, ककतना गहरा है।” The Dalits to whom the BJP paid lip service too for so many years realised that even the talk of 400 seats meant that Baba Saheb Amdedkar’s Constitution was in danger and they deserted this Party. The Marathas whom the BJP coalition had tried so desperately to woo realised that their promises were worth nothing. BJP and its allies lost seven out of eight seats in Marathwada region. The careers of Jat youth were at risk with the ill-conceived Agniveer Scheme. Their farming livelihoods were also threatened. Their female wrestlers were manhandled and the Jats expressed their anger at the ballot box. Ultimately, BJP’s policy was of exclusion, not inclusion. You wanted to exclude everybody and that was your undoing. You did not want Muslims; you trampled on Dalits; you ignored farmers; you ignored Jats; you marginalised Kashmiris. But they consolidated their voice during this election pan-India and today, they do not need you. That is the message they have given you during this election. “येदेश ही अपना हाकसल है, जहाांराम प्रसाद भी कबकस्मल है। कमट्टी को कैसेबाटोग, े सबका ही खून तो शाकमल ह।ै” That is what they said. You cannot divide us; you cannot do it anymore. This new India, this new frame of reference is going to be very hard for a lot of interest groups. Perhaps, the first casualty is the legacy Media, the Godi Media was its own worst victim. The brown-nosing TV anchors and online trolls lied, spread fake information and amplified the Government’s propaganda. These so-called psephologists who actually have printing contract from the Government of India were on TV 24×7 acting like the election was a done deal, there was no need for voting and the BJP have already won the election. Media mughals organised conclaves where they prostrated themselves before the ‘Vishwaguru’. Anchors used staged interviews and set-up scripts. In short, the Media had lost all credibility. So, when you asked the people during surveys as to which way they voted, they did not trust you and they did not tell you the truth, which is why you got it wrong. Shri Raj Kamal Jha, Chief Editor of The Indian Express remarked that some Media owners were so comfortable on their knees that it hurts to stand up. We say to them, “Please stay the way you are.” There is a new generation of journalists in India today with spine, with integrity and with courage. You have done your best to silence them with fake cases and censorship. But they have survived and they will thrive in the digital space. I will also touch upon another pillar of our democracy, the judiciary. Two days ago, hon. Chief Justice of India while in a visit to Kolkata remarked that the judges are not deities, they are here to dispense justice with compassion. Just as one cannot be partly pregnant, you are either are or you are not. Justice and democracy – these two must be absolute. They cannot partly be in effect. The retirement age for High Court Judges is 62 and the retirement age for Supreme Court Judges is 65. This has unfortunately contributed to High Court Judges kowtowing to the Supreme Court Collegium and to the Government for a last-minute elevation to be able to serve for three more years and then qualify for further sinecures such as the head of Lokpal, head of National Human Rights Commission, Chairmen of various tribunals. It has come to such a state that Opposition leaders framed in politically-motivated cases are denied bail and justice. It is simply because Judges are even scared to touch their case for fear of offending the Government. Today, I say that the poorest people of India, who have perhaps the most to lose from offending the Government in power, have shown the spine and risen to the occasion. Your Lords and Ladyships heed thy inner voice, have a spine and rise to the occasion. Seven months ago, on 8th December, 2023, this House was transformed into a Kurusabha presided over by a blind Dhritarashtra where Dushasan darbaris made every attempt to disrobe Draupadi. The Ethics Committee that voted 6:4 to recommend my expulsion on the 9th of November had 10 Members including one Chairperson. Out of five Lok Sabha Members from the BJP, four have not returned to this House. The Chairman, a BJP Member, has also not returned. The Congress turncoat from Punjab, who had voted against, has also not returned. The BJP lady MP from Maharashtra who started the debate in the House on behalf of the BJP has also lost. Much like Lord Krishna protected Draupadi, the people of Krishnanagar have protected me. In the last year, a lot of people looked at me and said: “Oh, Mahua, you must have lost a lot. You lost your membership. You lost your house.” By the way, I also lost my uterus due to a surgery but you know what I gained, I gained what Rahul ji said: “The freedom from fear.” I do not fear you. I will see the end of you. We will see the end of you. Your ED, CBI, income tax department, trolls, media, and your … nobody can scare us The people of India are patient. They will wait patiently for this Government to fall and I hope that whoever writes the next speech for the hon. President of India will give her the respect and honour due by not filling it with falsity. This Government has dishonoured the Office of the President by giving her a script that is full of … We wait and the people of India wait for the restoration of her honour and for the honour of her august Office. It is in this hope that I bow my head to the holiest of our books in its 75th year of adoption. Hail the Constitution – Jai Samvidhan. Thank you.
