Mahua to Carla: There’s always something about Marie

Claim more, especially from female politicians, and harm Marie Antoinette. A common villain, from India to America and Europe.

She was an unlucky figure whose name has become synonymous with aristocratic carelessness and pathetic indifference towards the people. 

In modern political discourse, Marie Antoinette, who was Queen of France before the French Revolution and is best known for her public conviction in 1793 following the overthrow by revolutionaries and the abolition of the monarchy, is used by media and politicians around the world. 

Portray women as public figures – often, politicians themselves or companions of high-profile politicians – as cold-hearted.

Antoinette was newly found in Indian politics after Monday’s conference on price increases in the Lok Sabha. 

As TMC (Trinamool Congress) Member of Parliament Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar got up to tell, her party comrade Mahua Moitra shifted her bag from the floor to the seat. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party took note of this, with party speaker Shahzad Poonawalla asserting that “Marie Antoinette Mahua Moitra was concealing her costly bag”.

The Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament responded in his unique style, citing the “jholewala fakir” remark that Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to describe himself in 2016. 

Sharing a collage of her photos with the bag, Mahua Moitra wrote a while later, “Jholewalaa fakir has been in Parliament from 2019. 

Jholaa leke ae thaa… Here’s a look at some of the examples when the French queen, nicknamed Madame Deficit because she was blamed for France’s financial crisis, has been invited to attack female public figures around the world:

Nirmala Sitharaman

Mahua Moitra is not the only Indian politician to be called Marie Antoinette. 

In 2019, when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman came under attack during a discussion on the rising onion price, she said her family had “little to do with onions”. 

Referring to this, Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram tweeted, “Our own Marie Antoinette.” Nirmala Sitharaman’s office later issued a clarification, saying her comment was misapprehended and taken out of circumstances.

Carrie Johnson

Boris Johnson’s (British Prime Minister) wife, Carrie Johnson, was subjected to social media ridicule soon this year after she was condemned for the “Partygate Scandal” and designated “Carrie Antoinette”. 

Boris and his wife Carie Johnson were among those who were caught by police for being at illegal parties in Downing Street during the Covid pandemic. 

The first comparison between Carey and the wife of King Louis XVI first surfaced on social media in 2020, when Johnson renovated his Downing Street flat. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson receives an annual salary of £30,000 (approx. Rs 28.79 lakh at current exchange rates) to pay out his accommodations. 

But, according to the report of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the work cost at least £112,000. Carrie Antoinette himself was known for always renovating his Palace, the Petit Trianon, which is on the grounds of the Versailles Palace.

Michelle Obama

Even one of the most loved faces in the world did not avoid comparison with Antoinette. 

In 2010, she was compared to the prolific queen when she and her daughter went on vacation with a group of family friends to the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. 

His office rejected the criticism, pointing out that Obama was a private citizen “on a private visit”.

Nancy Pelosi

The US House speaker, who is now in news for his visit to Taiwan, is a much-discredited figure in American conservative and right-wing circles. 

She was compared to the decadent French queen in 2020 when, during an interview with a late-night talk show host during the lockdown, Pelosi showed ice cream in her refrigerator, saying, “And we rested ice cream for Easter Sunday.” 

Because we were enjoying it, can we say – I don’t know what I would have done without ice cream.”

Carla Bruni

In 2008, the then-French First Lady was branded as “modern-day Marie Antoinette” by the news magazine “Marianne”, as she prepared to release her third album. 

Ahead of her state visit to Britain, Christie’s auction house released nude photos of Bruni and the French First Lady gave interviews in which she discussed her love life.