Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Saturday wrote to Delhi police commissioner and the city’s Barakhamba police station, asking them to remove security personnel deputed outside her residence as it appeared like she was “under some sort of surveillance”.

Moitra tweeted a photo of the security personnel, asking Union Home Minister Amit Shah to remove them.

“3 BSF [Border Security Force] men with assault rifles outside my home,” she wrote on Twitter. “ Say they are from Barakhamba Road police station for my ‘protection’. Still outside my home.
Am a free citizen of India – people will protect me.”

A few hours later, the Trinamool Congress MP tweeted a letter she wrote to the police. It said that the station house officer of the Barakhamba police station had come to her residence to meet her on Thursday evening, following which the three BSF officers were deputed.

“The conduct of these armed officers indicate that they are making notes of movements to and from my residence, it appears to me that I am under some sort of surveillance,” she said in the letter. She later posted more photos of the security personnel and said that there was no need to protect her.

“Don’t waste resources on protecting just me, protect everybody,” Moitra told ANI. “I do not need anything special, I do not take security. If you are surveilling me, ask me and I will tell you. Indian democracy is already under threat, do not make us feel like we are living in Russian Gulag.”

The police, however, said that that the deployment was normal. “It was a routine deployment,” an unidentified senior officer told PTI. “However, as per the request received, we have taken back our force”.

Earlier this week, the Trinamool Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar constituency had lashed out at the Narendra Modi government for making “hate, pettiness and bigotry” a part of its narrative, in what she called a “truly fascist fashion”. She delivered the fiery speech in the Parliament during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to the Budget session.

Besides criticising the government, she had also made a mention of the sexual harassment allegation levelled against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, in 2019. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party moved a privilege notice against her for the comments.