STORMY PETREL IN A TEMPEST

The articulate West Bengal MP, one of the Modi government's fiercest critics, runs into a big question mark over her future

- SUNIL MENON

The Nine Days of the Goddess did not bring the usual harvest of carnival laughter this time for Mahua Moitra. The parliamentarian from Bengal—whose constituency goes far beyond the dull confines of her Lok Sabha seat of Krishnanagar—had the Pujo calendar of 2023 ticking more like an ominous clock. On October 14, a “jilted ex” darkened the eve of Navratri for her: this was Jai Anant Dehadrai, a 35-year-old Supreme Court lawyer, who had shot off a 39-page letter oozing with scandal to the CBI and to a BJP MP. The latter, Nishikant Dubey, promptly scaled up the hostilities by demanding Mahua’s suspension from the House for breach of privilege and worse, citing nuggets from the letter. Mahua, with studied nonchalance, took to social media to wave away this onslaught as the work of an embittered beau and “a fake degree wala” and sent defamation notices to media houses that reproduced the allegations. But things got worse. On October 19—Panchami, when purohits chant hymns to Skandamata, the mother of the war god—Dubai-based business scion Darshan Hiranandani produced a signed affidavit that presaged damnation even more grimly. By the ninth night, after he stood by his story in a TV interview, Mahua seemed almost ready for political visarjan.