- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
All hell broke loose on social media after allegedly cropped pictures of her holding a cigar and a glass of wine became viral.
By: Shubham Ghosh
SHE has been one of the fiercest critics of prime minister Narendra Modi and is not shy to take on the entire regime even when the opposition find it difficult to get things going against a brute majority.
Mahua Moitra, a parliamentarian from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and a member of the Trinamool Congress, a party led by a firebrand woman leader who is as anti-Modi, has come under the scanner for enjoying a glass of wine at a dinner party and smoking a cigar.
Can negative thoughts be created about a woman's character if her photo of smoking a cigar or drinking alcohol becomes public? People who are in public life also have their own personal life and in that they are free to do whatever is legally valid. Despite not agreeing with… pic.twitter.com/0KZ9TuG5zQ
— ?? ????? (@mktyaggi) October 16, 2023
As soon as her pictures that were allegedly cropped to show her alone with wine and cigar and with her Indian National Congress colleague Shashi Tharoor started doing the rounds on social media, the 49-year-old MP was attacked by netizens who did not appreciate the idea of her drinking and smoking. She was also called a “vile and disgusting” woman.
Whats cooking between Shashi Tharoor and Mahua Moitra?? ???? #HaramiMahua #ShashiTharoor #MahuaMoitra pic.twitter.com/wg10lxM3EJ
— Rosy (@rose_k01) October 14, 2023
However, as she has done before, Moitra hit back at the critics.
Most amused to see some personal photos of me being circulated on social media by @BJP4India ‘s troll sena.
I like green dress better on me than white blouse. And why bother cropping – show rest of the folks at dinner as well.
Bengal’s women live a life. Not a lie.— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 15, 2023
“I like the green dress better on me than the white blouse,” she wrote on X in response. “And why bother cropping? Show the rest of the folks at dinner as well. Bengal’s women live a life. Not a lie.”
She also said that she doesn’t smoke as she is severely allergic to cigarettes and that she was just posing with a friend’s cigar for a joke.
Alcohol in public life is considered sensitive in India, even for men, as it suggests a sign of immorality. Politicians in the country avoid drinking in public to ensure they are not photographed and their image doesn’t take a hit.
For the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Modi, a woman who is single and also seen drinking in the open, is a target to go after. The party’s own women leaders are often seen carrying the ‘perfect’ image when moving around among people and that includes wearing a modest Indian dress such as sari and applying ‘sindoor’ or vermilion on the forehead suggesting they are married.
In the past, BJP leaders have been heard warning women drinking and wearing “dirty clothes”.
Moitra, who studied and worked in the West before entering politics, did not allow the criticism go unaddressed.
“I am a Bengali woman. We wear what we want. We eat what we want. We say what we want. We love who we want. And we worship who we want. Our clothes will remain exactly how they are . . . It’s your thinking that is dirty,” she said in a video posted on X.
Controversy is not new for the MP and there have been many occasions when she has been trolled and targeted by the Hindu right-wing elements for speaking her mind on issues, be it policies of the Modi government to Hindu Goddess Kali, whom she called a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting, only to stir up a massive row.
She was also mocked as a champagne socialist for carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag to the parliamentary debate on the issue of poverty. Next time she made a public appearance, she tweeted, “My dears, this is also Louis Vuitton, the Pochette. Do look it up. It will save you time trying to figure it out.”
Santosh Desai, a social commentator, said that the tweets and photo, which excluded two male politicians who were also in the frame, reflected the “usual misogyny” that pervades Indian politics. “It carries the insinuation of promiscuity,” he said. “This kind of attack is the easiest way of attacking a rival female politician who is articulate and outspoken and who you can’t handle in any other way.”
However, it was not just the wine-and-cigar episode that has added to Moitra’s problems at the moment. The first-time parliamentarian, who is expected to seek a second term next year, has also been accused by a BJP MP of accepting bribes from a businessman for asking questions in the parliament and the complaint was referred to the ethics committee by Om Birla, speaker of the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the Indian parliament.
