New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday (August 14) said she was being forced to leave a room she had booked for the night at the Circuit House in Krishnanagar, Nadia, West Bengal, alleging that the district administration’s actions put her safety at risk.

In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Moitra said she had returned to Bengal after the House was adjourned sine die on August 13 and was staying alone at the Circuit House.

According to Moitra, at 9.47 pm the Additional District Magistrate, Nadia, called and told her to vacate the premises, saying that the “order had come from the top”. At 10.52 pm, she said, the district administration sent her a WhatsApp message containing an order stating that no reservations made after August 14 would be honoured because of annual cleaning and maintenance, and that her reservation was a new one, which meant she had to leave.

She said the room she stayed in was the one she was always allotted at the Circuit House. She entered at around 6.15 pm, was served tea at 7 pm and dinner at 9.20 pm. "Nobody conveyed anyting to me when I made the booking, nobody informed me when I checked in," she said, asking why, if there had been an "order from above", it was not communicated earlier.

She also posted a message on X addressing opposition leaders and MPs, in which she wrote: “I am staying night in my district HQ at circuit house which official accommodation for MP. Received call at 9:47 pm from administration asking that I should vacate my room. They are that desperate to keep us out of area!”

Moitra questioned why she had not been informed of the alleged order when she made the booking or checked in. She also said that, around 11 pm, she realised a large crowd had gathered outside the Circuit House gates, shouting slogans including “Jai Shri Ram”. She said a “lynch mob” had collected in a secure area opposite the bungalows of the superintendent of police and the district magistrate.

In a video message on X around midnight, while holding an Indian flag at the Circuit House, Moitra said she was not scared and invoked Jawaharlal Nehru’s Independence Day speech about freedom, power and responsibility. She questioned the government’s commitment to women’s representation in Parliament, saying, “You want one-third women in Parliament? I am one of 74 women in Parliament.”

Moitra also appealed to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation made up of national parliaments from around the world headquartered in Geneva, saying she was a sitting woman MP in India and had been asked by the government to vacate her room in an official guest house late at night. She alleged that a BJP crowd was gathered outside the gates and “baying for my blood”. She described the incident as a reflection of the “state of democracy in India” on Independence Day.

In her letter, Moitra urged the Speaker to “urgently look into the matter” and take steps to ensure the dignity and security of women parliamentarians. She said that efforts to bring more women into Parliament would be meaningless unless the 74 women already in the Lok Sabha could be protected.

The incident drew sharp criticism from opposition leaders, with TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien asking in an X post, "What's going on here in Bengal?"

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav similarly said, "The Lok Sabha Speaker should clarify whether this is a violation of a Member of Parliament's privilege or not."

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas condemned the incident and also called for the Speaker's intervention: Is this the what they claim to respect women? The same PM who speaks of Nari Shakti from the Red Fort?
Rules, protocol and basic dignity thrown to the wind. The Speaker of Lok Sabha should intervene."

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