The snake has finally come out of the burrow. But its fang utterly lacks the punch and prowess to decapacitate the prey. No doubt, it has succeeded in inflicting some bruises on the body of the victim, but one thing is certain that its venom is sticky and counterfeit. Its failure to damage physically the victim has nevertheless exposed the nasty design of the snake-charmer.
This is for the first time, ever since the Adani scam surfaced, Adanis fired their insinuation salvo and character assassination charade against Mahua Moitra, who, after Rahul Gandhi, has been spearheading expose campaign against the Adanis. What is most important aspect of this smear campaign has been timing of attack on Mahua. Apparently, Adani’s attack against Mahua would appear to be of personal nature, but Adani is not such a fool to stake his prestige and reputation, that is too at this crucial juncture, for one person, Mahua.
The five states, which will have assembly elections next month, are quite important for survival of Narendra Modi. Win in these elections would give political momentum for Modi at the 2024 Lok Sabha battle. But the recent developments in these five states send a queered message. While the people of these states are extremely disillusioned with the functioning of Modi and nature of his politics, the BJP units in these states are in tatters and fractured state and unable to take on the INDIA challenge head on.
Probably Modi nursed the impression that the leaders of INDIA block, especially Rahul Gandhi, would not make the Adani issue an election agenda. But he has been proved wrong. For INDIA block this is the prime issue and all the problems that stare at the country and its people are creations of Narendra Modi who in his over arching exercise to help Adani has violated all the constitutional norms and provisions. Moreover it is the wariness of Modi in choosing the issues for attacking INDIA and Rahul that has simply complicated the situation for him and has made the Adani issue bounce on the national scenario.
Initially Modi had tried to penalize Rahul. But his design misfired. With the pure aim to silence his bitter critics Modi has also started the process of sending his detractors to jail. Only a month back AAP leader Sanjay Singh was arrested and now he is cooling his heels in the jail notwithstanding the judiciary being aware of the factual state. Now BJP and Adani, undeniably at the diktat of Modi have targeted Mahua Moitra, the firebrand Lok Sabha member of Trinamool Congress, who on several occasions tore apart the Modi government and put Modi in public dock. His administration not initiating any action has been the topic of surprise and conjectures in the public domain. Questions were asked how could a person who is known for his ruthless retaliation against his foes has been lying low and not reacting to Mahua’s jibes and sneers.
Mahua has been questioning the SEBI action since American short-seller Hindenburg Research raised several allegations of fraud and manipulation against the Adani Group in January. Moitra had made it clear on Twitter that she won’t remain silent on the Adani row even as shares of Adani Group’s seven listed companies have seen around $127 billion wiped away from their market valuation after Hindenburg Research’s report alleged stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, and flagged “substantial” debt levels, which the group has denied.
Moitra also had launched a stinging attack on the government over the Adani-Hindenburg issue and said the billionaire businessman had taken the country for a ride. While participating in the debate on the ‘Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address’ in Lok Sabha, Moitra, without naming Gautam Adani, said a famous person whose name starts with ‘A’ and ends with ‘I’ and is not Advani, who stinks of crony capitalism, had duped everyone.
Suddenly Mahua has featured prominently on the radar of Modi and BJP ecosystem. Adani and the BJP ecosystem targeted the personal and professional lives of Mahua. Some pictures have been making rounds on social sites where in Mahua is drinking with a Congress leader. It exposed the bankruptcy of the bosses of the BJP IT cell. Mahua has spent a large part of her life in foreign countries and had held many top business offices, obviously drinking is not such a big issue that could be used to malign her. Nonetheless this episode points out to what extent the BJP would stoop low. It is indeed a matter of shame. Intruding into the personal and private life of a person. It has never been the part of the political ethics.
Close associates of Adani and top BJP leaders have been involved in the murky operation is borne out of the statement by Adanis. They used a complaint by a BJP MP to make their first direct attack on Mahua Moitra. They said other business groups and individuals were working overtime to harm its name and market standing. The BJP MP whom Adanis referred is Nishikant Dubey from Jharkhand who on Sunday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that Trinamool Congress MP took bribes for raising questions in Parliament to “protect the interest of a business group.”
Quite interesting Dubey based his allegation on the claims of an advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai. The information is not the first hand info. Dubey said that Jai had “shared irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged” between Moitra and Darshan Hiranandani. The fourth party are Adanis. In a statement, Adani Group referred to Dubey’s complaint without referring to him by name but said a Dehadrai has “filed a complaint with the CBI in the form of a sworn affidavit bringing on record the ‘commission of an elaborate criminal conspiracy by Mahua Moitra and Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of Hiranandani Group for specifically targeting Gautam Adani and his group of companies through parliamentary questions.”
Significantly neither Dubey nor Adani, came out with i original information. Mahua had alleged that Dehadrai has been a jilted partner and has a bitter feud with her over the custody of their pet dog. Moitra had filed multiple police complaints against him in the last six months for alleged criminal trespass, theft, vulgar messages and abuse. Mahua has severed her relation with Dehadrai. Now Jai is out to defame and malign her and BJP and the Adanis have jumped into the fray.
It is really tough to believe the allegations of Dubey. Incidentally some two months back Mahua had raised the issue of Dubey having fake educational degrees. Since then Dubey has been planning against her. With the elections to the five state assemblies barely a month away, the BJP ecosystem and Modi have been using it to throttle the voice of protest so that it may not impact these elections and also to malign the images of the INDIA leaders. Through this machination, the BJP intends to present their characters of INDIA leaders in bad light.
Mahua on Monday alleged that the Adani Group and its “PR team” are sending out “smear campaigns” against her on WhatsApp. Reacting to the BJP campaign Shiv Sena (UT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said TMC MP has been character assassinated because she has been “vocal on the issue”. “Absolutely disgusting that one would indulge in character assassination of a woman MP just because she has been vocal on the issue and has been consistently demanding transparency from the group,” Chaturvedi tweeted.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla making “cash for query” allegations against Mahua Moitra. In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Dubey claimed that a lawyer has shared “irrefutable” evidence of bribes exchanged between the TMC MP and businessman Darshan Hiranandani. “There is not an iota of doubt about a criminal conspiracy hatched by Mahua Moitra to garner and protect the business interests of a businessman – Shri Darshan Hiranandani – by asking Parliamentary Questions, which is reminiscent of ‘Cash for Query’ episode of 12 December, 2005,” the BJP MP said.
On her part Mahua too posted several posts on social media to hit back at the BJP leader, saying she “welcomes any move against her after the Lok Sabha Speaker is finished dealing with pending charges against him (Dubey)”. Mahua has also sent legal notice to former personal friend Jai Anant Dehadrai alongwith MP Nishikant Dubey and some media houses for cash for queries allegations. It is alleged that Jai had told Dubey that Hiranandani’s had given shoes, cloths and other freebies to Mahua. No where it is alleged in concrete terms that they paid her cash. Dubey in fact had come out with this allegation.
She has sought for a CBI enquiry into her “alleged money laundering right after they finish investigating Adani’s offshore money trail, over invoicing, benami accounts.” “Adani may use BJP agencies to browbeat competition & buy airports but just try doing it with me,” she said. “Multiple breach of privileges pending against fake degreewala& other @BJP4India luminaries. Welcome any motions against me right after Speaker finishes dealing with those. Also waiting for @dir_ed& others to file FIR in Adani coal scam before coming to my doorstep.”
Mahua is a tough fighter. That has been evident in both Lok Sabha and outside. The BJP ecosystem has targeted a wrong horse. The TMC Lok Sabha member is confident of exposing both the BJP leaders including the Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey and the Adanis. This same Dubey was the person who campaigned against the news portal NewsClick after the New York Times story and the ED and CBI raids followed. NewsClick editor is in custody. The entire press community has demanded his release.BJP leadership in collision with their collaborators in the business world will continue to haunt the INDIA leaders by deploying the central agencies till the Lok Sabha elections. (IPA Service)
The post Smear Campaign By BJP And Adanis Against TMC MP Mahua Moitra Is Part Of A Design first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.
