Mahua Moitra said she would not apologise for something she said to her own party workers.
Kolkata:
A row has erupted over Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra calling some reporters filming a scuffle among her party workers “two paisa media”. It has sparked a backlash from sections of the media, including the 75 year old Kolkata Press Club.
Trinamool leaders are mostly keeping a distance or condemning the remark.
Mahua Moitra told NDTV, she did not attack the media but berated her party workers for getting “two local stringers with mobile phones” to film the scuffle.
Journalists at Nadia district, of which Ms Moitra is Trinamool district president, are on the streets. A song by one of them has gone viral.
The incident took place at Gayeshpur in Nadia on 6th December. Ms Moitra had reached the venue of the internal meeting when she saw protests by supporters of a former Trinamool town committee president, Mintu Dey. They were shouting ‘outsider’ slogans against the new town comittee Bapi Chakraborty.
Ms Moitra said she was trying to resolve the matter when Chakraborty’s men came out of the hall and scuffled with Mintu Dey supporters.
She also noticed “two local stringers with phones” filming the scuffle.
“I was inside the venue behind a grill gate. I had a Mike and I shouted at my party workers for getting people to film the scuffle which would then be put on social media and embarrass the party ( about infighting),” Ms Moitra said.
“Who has called these ”du poisar press” (two paisa media) inside? Remove these elements from the venue. Some of our party members invite such people to closed-door meetings to see their faces on TV. This is not done,” the lawmaker is heard saying in a video that has been in wide circulation online.
Ms Moitra clarified that the incident took place at a Trinamool Congress meeting to decide on a booth committee.
A row erupted between a former booth committee president and the man who had replaced him.
“I have a simple rule – at booth committee meets, mobiles are not allowed… I saw one or two local stringers with mobile phones recording the fighting,” she said.
She said one of the feuding leaders brought the two journalists and she was upset because “I knew they would record (the fight) and put it on social media and my party would be roasted (about infighting). So I told my workers, why do you get these ‘two paisa press’ meaning these guys with the mobile phones, why do you want your faces on TV? You come in and we will talk. Some guy recorded it,” the MP said, asserting that she made the remarks to party workers, not the media.
“By the time I came out, the real press, those with microphones, had got the news. They asked me what happened. I said this is a democratic party, so people got agitated. So they asked, why did you call the press ‘two paisa’ . I said no, I didn’t say anything. He said ‘your people attacked the press’. In the scuffle, two or three stringers also must have got pushed around. I said I didn’t attack anyone and left,” said Ms Moitra.
The Kolkata Press Club, in a statement, said Ms Moitra should withdraw her comments and apologise.
“Her statement is undoubtedly unwarranted and humiliating as in a democracy the importance of a journalist and respect for his/her profession is recognised universally,” said the statement.
“The fight and struggle by a journalist for his profession and his/her social responsibility is known to all. None has the right to insult a media person, we condemn the
MP’s comment and express hope that she will withdraw it
immediately and tender her apology,” it said.
Ms Moitra posted a tweet that did not blunt the criticism.
My meme-editing skills are improving! pic.twitter.com/PyO69avwRi
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) December 7, 2020
Senior Bengal minister and Trinamool leader Subrata Mukherjee told reporters, “We have to enquire as to what she had exactly said… but we believe in keeping cordial ties with the media, irrespective of what it reports about us”.
Ms Moitra said she would not apologise for something she said to her own party workers and not the press.
