Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Moitra listed human rights violations during the past few years and noted that the US-based Freedom House Report had downgraded the country’s status from free to partly free, placing India at 111th position out of 160 nations in the Human Freedom Index. She also mentioned that India was at an abysmal 142nd position out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.
The TMC MP highlighted the year-long farmers’ agitation, the ‘Bulli Deals’ app in which Muslim women were being auctioned and the Pegasus spyware controversy.
“The government stands accused of having spent taxpayers’ money to buy technology to spy for years on its own citizens,” she said, adding “The government has misled even the Supreme Court.”
Moitra also flagged the raids on opposition leaders ahead of elections, targeting of Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists and recent attacks on Christians by the same groups.
She lashed out at the Centre’s attempts to alter the IAS cadre rules and said that the move aimed to “bully” bureaucrats in the states. Moitra claimed that the mention of freedom fighters in the President’s address was mere “lip service”. “Would Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose have approved of a Haridwar Dharma Sansad that issues blood-curdling calls for Muslim genocide,” she said, adding, “Ours is a living constitution, it breathes as long as we are willing to breathe life into it. Otherwise, it is just a piece of paper, black and white, that can be smudged into shades of grey by any majoritarian government.”
The TMC MP also accused the government of seeking to alter history.
When PM Modi responded to the Opposition attack in Parliament, he mostly targeted the Congress party.
The Congress had failed to secure people’s mandate in several states for decades but was still indulging in “blind opposition”, the PM said, adding that the statements and the actions of the opposition party suggested that it had resigned itself to staying out of power for 100 years.
Defending the opposition charge that alleged mishandling of the migrant crisis after the lockdown was announced due to pandemic in 2020, the PM accused the Congress of scaring them at the Mumbai railway station.
