Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday attacked Trinamool Congress (TMC) Mahua Moitra over her “Pappu” remark in Parliament and asked her to look in her own “backyard”. While addressing the Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister said “Regarding the question of who is the Pappu? If the honourable member just takes a look at her backyard, she will find the answer. West Bengal government sits over the schemes that can benefit the people.”
Earlier on Tuesday, TMC Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra lashed out at the Centre over several issues affecting the country and took a swipe at the BJP government indicting it for “extreme incompetence”. “The government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu to use it to denigrate and to signify extreme incompetence. Let me point out what the data and statistics tell us who the actual Paapu really is,” she said and read out data on the economy.
Mahua said that this year has seen more people giving up Indian citizenship than any single year. High net-worth individuals are willing to pay up to a million dollars to get citizenship in other countries. “Is this the sign of a healthy economic environment? Of a healthy tax environment? Who’s the pappu now?” she had questioned.
Further, the Finance Minister also took jibe over Mahau Moitra’s phrase regarding “maachis”. Moitra had said, “Sawaal ye nahi hai ki bastiyaan kisne jalaayi, sawaal ye hai ki paagal aadmi ko maachis kisne di (It is not the question who burnt slums, the question is who gave the madman a matchstick).”
Addressing Parliament, Sitharaman said “Regarding the question of who gave the “maachis”. It is a Democracy, where people elect their government. So, who gave the “maachis”, it’s the people, and we don’t need to undermine the people.” She also took a jibe at the post-election scenario of West Bengal and Gujarat, giving an apparent reference to the post-poll violence in Bengal.
“What really matters here is how one uses that ‘maachis’ once you gets hold of it. Recently, BJP got a huge victory in Gujarat, and the party peacefully formed the government. While, what happened in West Bengal post-election,” she said. “When we got the ‘maachis’, we gave Ujjwala, Ujaala, PM Kisan, Swachh Bharat. But when the ‘maachis’ came in your hands, rape and loot happened. Not just that, even the vehicles of MoS Muralidharan and Home Minister Amit Shah were attacked. So, we should also see how the ‘maachis’ was used,” she said.
