Amid uproar in the Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Parliament on Friday on the recommendation of an ethics committee probing the cash-for-query case.
The tumultuous session saw the opposition rallying out of the House in solidarity with Moitra. The news also made it to the front-pages of leading news dailies, from Telegraph’s “Lash for query” headline to HT remarking on Sonia Gandhi’s “rare show of solidarity”.
But what did our primetime brethren say?
We watched last night so you don’t have to.
ABP’s ‘Mahabharat on Mahua’
In ABP’s primetime show Bharat ki Baat, anchor Rohit Singh Saval’s coverage of Mahua Moitra’s expulsion was titled “Mahua pe Mahabharat”.
Saval began with describing Moitra as “paison ke liye sansad mein sawal puchne wali TMC leader,” basically a TMC leader who “asks questions in the parliament for money”.
But this was one of the more benign things he said last night. After explaining what had happened at the Lok Sabha yesterday, he jumped straight into “Mahua pe Mahabharat ka aage asar kya hoga?” (What will be the impact of the Mahabharat on Mahua?)
For context, Moitra had lashed out at the ethics committee chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar for asking her “filthy, unethical” questions – she compared it to a “vastraharan (disrobing), witch-hunt of the worst kind”. Vastraharan is what Draupadi was subjected to in the Mahabharat.
Anyway, back to Saval, who discussed “this action’s reaction in 2024”, referring to the general election. “2024 mein Modi ke liye Moitra kaise amogh astra banengi?” he asked, or “how will Moitra become the most powerful weapon for Modi?” – suggesting that Moitra’s expulsion will be used by the BJP to attack the opposition.
“But who is Mahua Moitra?” Saval asked in Hindi. Helpfully, he answered himself as well. Moitra is an “angry, aggressive” politician who takes on Modi using “strong words”. In Saval’s version of events, she started her political career by first “holding Rahul Gandhi’s finger” and then clasping “Mamata Banerjee’s pallu”. He also accused her of flouting “shabdik mariyada” or dignity of language.
In Hindi: “Tevar mein talkhi, andaz mein akramakta, aur sansad mein khade ho kar sakht shabdon se Modi sarkar par didi ki tarah dahadne ke liye jaani jaati rahin hain Mahua Moitra...Videsh mein banker ki naukri chodkar Mahua Moitra ne siyasat shuru ki thi Rahul Gandhi ki ungli pakad kar magar usse aage badhaya didi ka pallu thaam kar...Kayi dafa shabdik mariyadaon ko lagne wali Mahua Moitra achanak hi October mein ek aise vivaad ke chakravyuh mein fasi jo unke siyasat ke liye phaas ban gayi.”
NDTV’s big question on Moitra and ‘another businessman’ Adani
NDTV’s primetime show, Khabron ki Khabar, jumped the gun by demanding on-screen: “Kya ab jail jaengi?” Will Moitra go to jail now?
Anchor Sumit Awasthi said Moitra has been accused of taking gifts, “expensive gifts”, in exchange for asking questions in Parliament on behalf of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in connection with “another businessman Gautam Adani”.
He said in Hindi: “Ek karobari Darshan Hiranandani ki taraf se kuch khaas sawaal puche, jo ki ek dusre karobari Gautam Adani ke kaamkaaj se jude hue the. Kul mila kar wo jo sawaal puch rahi thi, wo kisi ko fayda pahunchane ke liye kar rahi thi.”
Loosely translated: “One businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s special questions were asked by Moitra in connection with another businessman Gautam Adani. All-in-all, the questions Moitra was asking were to benefit someone.”
Awasthi had turned detective, concluding that Moitra had asked questions to “benefit” someone. He pieced together the “entire case” and read out sections of Hiranandani’s affidavit .
“Mahua ne pradhan mantri par hamle ke liye Adani samuh ko jaan much kar nishana banaya tha…unhone kayi sawal apusht jankariyon par puche,” said Awasthi. (In order to attack the prime minister, Mahua purposelessly targeted the Adani group…she also asked several untenable questions.)
It should be noted that Moitra claimed the PMO “forced” Hiranandani to sign the affidavit. We might as well also note that NDTV is owned by Adani.
Sudhir Chaudhary worried about gaumutra, not Moitra
In his primetime show Black and White, Sudhir Chaudhary refused to address the elephant in the room. He instead dived deep into the controversies around the “respect of cows in India” and gaumutra (cow urine).
From cow cuddling to an alleged US patent of gaumutra for the treatment of cancer, Chaudhary’s six-minute tirade on Indians “disrespecting” cow dung and cow urine was tireless. He claimed Japan had carried out a “big experiment” to make rocket fuel from cow dung.
He said in Hindi: “Kya apko pata hain jab India mein gobar aur gau mutra ka apmaan hota hain, tab America jaise desh mein gaumutra se cancer aur dusri bimariyon ke dawayi banane ka patent liya ja chuka hain…Japan ne toh aaj hi gobar se rocket fuel banane ka bahot bada prayog kiya hain.”
Which translates to: “Do you know when Indian are disrespecting cow dung and cow urine, a country like America has acquired the patent of cow urine to produce medicines to cure cancer and other diseases…Today, Japan did a big experiment to produce rocket fuel out of cow dung.”
While the Aaj Tak star anchor did not mention Moitra, he stepped up to defend Gautam Adani during a report on the Rs 200 crore “unaccounted cash” recovered by the Income Tax department from the premises of an Odisha distillery firm allegedly linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu.
Chaudhary iterated that the Congress had been targeting Adani despite the allegations against him being based on a “foreign company’s report”. He said the party believed an American company’s report to be the “final truth,” but it had not issued any statement on Sahu.
Meanwhile, on Times Now Navbharat, Navika Kumar held a debate on Moitra’s expulsion in her primetime show Sawal public ka, and News18 India’s Amish Devgan also put together a cacophonous debate on Moitra in his show Aar Paar.
However, if you want to actually figure out the allegations made by the ethics panel against Moitra, read this piece in Newslaundry.
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