On Thursday (October 23), TMC MP Mahua Moitra courted controversy after endorsing a Christian extremist’s disparaging remarks against Hindu festival of Diwali.
Mahua Moitra tweeted, “I agree”, on a post that encouraged racist hate towards Hindus and described Diwali as ‘ret*rded’. “Just like that, we’ve let braindead fucking Indians turn our beautiful Western countries into total shitholes with their retarded Diwali garbage that has zero to do with us,” a Christian extremist account had tweeted on which Ms Moitra responded.
Moitra’s response comes in the wake of alarming trend to vilify the Hindu festival of light online. Across social media platforms in the West, particularly X (formerly Twitter), what should have been a celebration of diversity, inclusion, and shared joy turned into a cesspool of racist vitriol and Hinduphobic bigotry.
Using Diwali as a pretext, scores of self-proclaimed Christian nationalists and white supremacists unleashed a torrent of abuse against Hindus and Indians, exposing the deep undercurrent of religious intolerance festering beneath the Western liberal façade of “freedom of religion.”
The attack was not merely directed at anonymous social media users celebrating the festival but also at prominent public figures. When FBI Director Kash Patel, a practising Hindu, wished everyone a happy Diwali in a simple, dignified post, the response was horrifying. He was accused of “promoting the festivals of foreign gods” and “demonic worship.” Some demanded his deportation, while others denounced Hindu deities as “false gods” and “sand demons.”
The same hatred poured onto Tulsi Gabbard, a Hindu Congresswoman and U.S. military veteran, whose Diwali greetings were met with abuse, mockery, and calls to “move to India.” What unfolded was not an isolated outburst of online fringe radicals, it was a coordinated expression of resentment against the idea of a confident, successful Hindu presence in America.
Seen in this context, Moitra’s tweet appears to encourage and endorse such racist and Hinduphobic bigotry against India and Hindus. But this is not surprising, given the TMC MP’s penchant for making anti-Hindu comments. Earlier this year, on August 28, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra sparked outrage after making derogatory remarks against Hindus, particularly targeting the Namasudra community.
In a viral video shared by BJP’s Amit Malviya, Moitra was heard mocking Hindus in Bengali, saying, “All year you are Trinamooli, and during elections Sanatani?”, implying one cannot be both a Hindu and a TMC supporter.
She went on to ridicule SCs, Namasudras, Matuas, and even mocked the Vaishnav community’s sacred Kanthi Mala, dismissing them as “wearing a wooden mala and coming to take doles.” The BJP condemned her comments as “anti-Hindu, casteist hate speech,” demanding her resignation. Malviya accused Moitra of spreading “communal venom” and urged affected communities to hold her accountable. This comes shortly after another controversy where Moitra reportedly made shocking remarks calling for the beheading of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
