Govt duty to protect her: Tharoor backs Mahua Moitra amid circuit house row

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed solidarity with TMC MP Mahua Moitra over an alleged attempt by Nadia authorities to make her vacate a circuit house. Tharoor said the government should ensure her security, while Moitra sought Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s intervention

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday expressed solidarity with TMC MP Mahua Moitra after the Nadia district administration allegedly attempted to force her to vacate a circuit house, and said it is the duty of the government to provide her security when a “mob is baying for her”. Tharoor said all democrats must stand in solidarity with Moitra in her travails.

“If the price of her convictions is that a mob is baying for her, it is the duty of the government to provide her security, not to ask her to vacate government accommodation!” the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

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Such elementary considerations should not be spelt out in a democracy, least of all on the day that marks the culmination of our freedom struggle, Tharoor said on X, using the hashtag ‘Stand With Mahua’. Moitra has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking his intervention in the Nadia district administration’s alleged attempt to force her to vacate a circuit house after she was initially allotted a room at the state-owned property.

The Krishnanagar MP has also threatened to move court over the alleged harassment, as she claimed that a large crowd had gathered outside the circuit house on Friday night, shouting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans after she refused to leave the premises. “I kindly request you to urgently look into the matter and take necessary steps to set an example and ensure the dignity of women parliamentarians across the country.

“Any Women’s Reservation Bill seeking to bring in more women is a matter of jest unless your august office can protect the 74 women who have battled great odds to enter this House,” the MP wrote in her letter to Birla. Moitra, who moved into the circuit house in Krishnanagar for an overnight stay following a Parliament session, asserted that as an MP she was entitled to stay there, but was being pressured by the district authorities to move out in the middle of the night with the intent to harass her.

“I went into the room of the Circuit House around 6.15 pm. The staff showed me to my usual room, which was made up and ready. Tea was served in my room at 7 pm, and dinner was served at 9.20 pm in the room.

“At 9.47 pm, I received a call from the additional district magistrate of Nadia, who informed me that I needed to vacate the premises. When I asked him the reason, he said that the ‘order had come from the top’, and he was only conveying the message,” she wrote. Moitra added that at 10:52 pm, she received a WhatsApp message from the district administration with a copy of an order which said no new reservations were to be honoured in the circuit house.

The MP had earlier posted the order she received from the Nezarath deputy collector of Nadia on her social media accounts. “In view of facilitating the annual maintenance cum upkeep and cleaning arrangements, the Nadia circuit house (at Krishnanagar) shall not be available for service from the evening of August 14, 2026, till further orders,” the document stated.

“Reservations already confirmed prior to 13th August, 2026, only shall be exempted from the general purview of this order,” it added. Moitra claimed in her letter to the Lok Sabha speaker that nobody conveyed anything to her when she made the booking and no one informed her about the booking embargo when she checked in.