An MP, her ex and their dog: Mahua Moitra’s battle with India’s parliament

It’s a saga that has had the hallways of India’s parliament abuzz for months: one that began with a bitter custody battle over a rottweiler dog named Henry, and culminated with the expulsion of one of the fiercest critics of the prime minister. Mahua Moitra, the MP who was expelled from parliament earlier this month after a vote, described the situation as “so ridiculous I feel like pinching myself”. “Make no mistake, this is a misogynistic witch-hunt intended to shame me into silence,” she added. “But they have miscalculated badly – I’m not going anywhere.” From the moment she was elected, Moitra, an investment banker turned first-time MP from the opposition party Trinamool Congress, made herself a thorn in the side of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government. She quickly rose to prominence after she stood up in parliament and listed the “seven signs of fascism” evident under Modi’s government. In successive speeches, many of which went viral, she directly accused the prime minister of crushing the media, manipulating the judiciary, “spreading falsehoods” and persecuting Muslims through discriminatory laws. Her refusal to be apologetic for her forthright personality, love of expensive things and life as a single, divorced woman also stood her apart. “Mahua breaks the mould of an Indian parliamentarian,” said Mukulika Banerjee, a professor of social anthropology at LSE. “She is glamorous, she’s smart, she’s relentless and she’s unafraid to ask difficult questions of the government, even when they try to humiliate her. This misogynistic government doesn’t know how to handle that, and that’s why we’ve seen this systematic effort to silence her.” Her profile was raised even further this year when she began raising questions about Modi’s relationship with the powerful billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, after the Adani conglomerate was accused of the “biggest con in corporate history” including fraud and stock price manipulation. Behind the scenes, Moitra alleges she was approached by a close emissary to the prime minister, who sits in the parliamentary upper house, telling her explicitly to stay away from discussions of Modi’s relationship to Adani. Rahul Gandhi, the senior leader of the opposition National Congress party, had also raised similar allegations about Modi and Adani. Not long after, he found himself convicted in a “politically motivated” defamation case and was expelled from parliament, though this was overturned by the courts in August. “They were just waiting for their moment to shut me up,” said Moitra. “And I guess Henry was the genesis of all of this.” Henry is not a politician but a rottweiler, owned by Moitra and her ex-partner, Jai Anant Dehadrai. They both acknowledge that a custody battle over Henry, whom they refer to as “like their child”, turned ugly earlier this year. By September, Moitra had filed a police case against Dehadrai and sent senior officers to his door to get him to sign a custody agreement for Henry, which he refused. In the weeks that followed, Dehadrai took action of his own. In a complaint filed to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, he alleged that he had “irrefutable evidence” that Moitra was accepting large cash bribes and gifts from a Dubai-based businessman, Darshan Hiranandani, to ask questions in parliament that suited his business interests, in particular to target rival Adani. Dehadrai later alleged that Moitra’s lawyer had tried to “coerce” him into withdrawing the complaint by offering him custody of Henry. Dehadrai also forwarded the complaint to a BJP MP – who also happened to be in a feud with Moitra after she had publicly accused him of forging his masters degree certificate and humiliated him in parliament. He took the allegations straight to the parliamentary speaker, calling it a “cash for questions scandal”. In early November, Moitra was hauled in front of the parliamentary ethics committee, even as several opposition politicians on the panel raised concerns that the hearing was a farce. “The dispute over a dog has come to the ethics committee. We are ashamed to discuss this,” said one MP, while another described the hearing as “dealing with a dog matter”. But they were silenced by the BJP committee chairman, who proceeded to interrogate Moitra with a series of questions about her relationship with Hiranandani that she described as “disgusting, sexist and completely unethical”. “He asked me how often did I speak to Darshan [Hiranandani] and on what apps, how often do I go see him in Dubai, do we meet in a hotel, does his wife know that you call him a dear friend?” said Moitra. “I was so furious that in the end I just walked out.” Despite objections by some non-BJP committee members at the “prejudicial” questioning, the chairman put it on the record that Moitra had refused to cooperate. In an affidavit signed by Hiranandani, the businessman admitted Moitra had shared her parliamentary login with him and had asked him, as an old and trusted friend, to post questions “directly on her behalf” from his Dubai office. He also said he had agreed to “favours” she had asked of him, including “expensive luxury items” and “travel expenses”. But both Moitra and Hiranandani stood firm that no bribes had been given. Moitra insists that all the questions submitted were her own and that no rules were broken. Hiranandani declined to comment for this article. Though the committee admitted it had no proof yet of cash exchanges for questions, it ultimately recommended Moitra’s expulsion for sharing the login, calling her conduct “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal”. According to one member, the committee’s decision to find her guilty by majority vote was made in less than three minutes with no discussion. Moitra declared the committee to be a “kangaroo court” and said that their decision had been based on “no evidence at all”. On 8 December, Moitra’s expulsion was put to a vote in parliament, where the BJP commands a huge majority. Even before the ethics committee report had been uploaded on the parliament portal, and without giving her a chance to address the chamber, they voted to expel her from parliament. Mamata Banerjee, the leader of Moitra’s party, called the expulsion “unacceptable” and a betrayal of democratic values. Several other opposition leaders also rallied around Moitra, alleging she had been targeted for speaking out against Adani, and stood beside her on the steps of parliament as she addressed the Modi government and vowed to fight it “for the next 30 years inside parliament, outside parliament, in the gutter, on the streets”. Moitra is now challenging her expulsion in the supreme court, even though it only lasts for the next few months until India holds its general election, likely to be in May. Moitra said she was confident of her re-election and return to parliament once again. “These are just small men with small minds and unluckily for them, I’m tough as nails,” she said.