Watch: ‘Propaganda…,’ Mahua Moitra says Vajpeyee's worst fears have come true

Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday said in the Lok Sabha that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's worst fears have come true in the government of his own party as the government has turned Parliament into Rome's Colosseum where the prime minister enters like a gladiator to the chants of 'Modi, Modi'.

Referring to Vajpayee's remarks in Parliament in 1972, Mahua Moitra said, "I would like to quote former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who in 1972 said in Parliament: These days the atmosphere in New Delhi makes one choke. It is not easy to breathe freely. The chanting of a prime minister's name on All India Radio from morning to night, saturated propaganda on cinema screens, how can people sitting in the Opposition fight this."

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"It is India's greatest tragedy perhaps that the very party Vajpayeeji led as prime minister today leads the government that has turned Parliament like Rome's Colosseum," Mahua Moitra said participating in the discussion on the demands for grants for the ministry of civil aviation 2022-23.

Here's what Vajpayee had said:

“The election results have placed exceptional power and authority in the prime minister’s hands…all power is concentrated in New Delhi…Central ministers have been reduced to courtiers at the Delhi Durbar…the prime minister’s secretariat has become a parallel cabinet…the Prime Minister is standing at the pinnacle and her colleagues are lying at her feet…Is this situation not fraught with the dangerous possibility of one individual getting established as a dictator?…These days the atmosphere in New Delhi makes one choke. It is not easy to breathe freely. Raising a voice of dissent is looked upon as a revolt…the chanting of the Prime Minister’s name on All India Radio from morning to night, saturated propaganda on Cinema screens…how can those sitting in the Opposition fight all this?” – Vajpayee had said. 

Mahua Moitra's remarks came in apparent reference to PM Modi being welcomed by chanting of his name by the BJP members in the Lok Sabha when the Budget session resumed after BJP's resounding victory in four states including Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

Some of Mahua Moitra's remarks were expunged later.

Moitra referred to Vajpayee's remarks on 'saturated propaganda on cinema screens' at a time BJP has drawn flak for promoting Vivek Agnihotri's Kashmir Files, a movie on the exodus of Kashmir Pandits from the Valley.