The ethics committee is probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s allegations that Moitra accepted cash and favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Hiranandani.
New Delhi: A day after the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee recommended her expulsion from the House in the “cash-for-query” matter, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said she is proud to go down in parliamentary history as the “first person to be unethically expelled by the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee”. In a post on X, the TMC MP said, “Proud to go down in parliamentary history as 1st person to be unethically expelled by Ethics Comm whose mandate doesn’t include expulsion. 1st expel & THEN ask govt to ask CBI to find evidence. Kangaroo court, monkey business from start to finish”.
The Ethics Committee on Thursday recommended Moitra’s expulsion, capping a fortnight of actions that included the deposition of three people over three sittings. The committee, chaired by BJP Lok Sabha member Vinod Kumar Sonkar adopted its 479-page report which recommended Moitra’s expulsion, possibly the first such action against an MP by the panel. Sonkar told reporters that six members of the panel supported the adoption of the report and four opposed it.
The four opposition members said the panel’s recommendation was “prejudiced” and “incorrect”, and businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who is alleged to have given bribes to Moitra, should have been asked to depose before the panel. He has only filed an affidavit.
The recommendations of the report, which was adopted by a margin of 6-4, also mentioned that Moitra accepted “money — cash and kind, amenities and various other facilities” from businessman Darshan Hiranandani, with whom the password and login details were shared. It also noted that 50 out of the 61 questions asked by Moitra in Parliament sought information “with the intent of protecting or perpetuating business interests” of Hiranandani.
Proud to go down in parliamentary history as 1st person to be unethically expelled by Ethics Comm whose mandate doesn’t include explusion. 1st expel & THEN ask govt to ask CBI to find evidence. Kangaroo court, monkey business from start to finish.https://t.co/PW5bbgeyIp
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 10, 2023
“Never Waste a Good Crisis they say… – this just helped me double my 2024 winning margin,” Moitra said in another post. She apparently deleted the post later.
Moitra, who accused Ethics Panel of enacting ‘Vastrapaharan’ by asking needless questions during her deposition, also thanked panel member JD (United) MP Giridhari Yadav for coming to her rescue like Govinda for Draupadi in the Mahabharata epic. In another post on X, she said, “Take a bow @GirighariYadav for telling it like it is. You truly are the Govinda for Draupadi.”
On Tuesday, Moitra took a swipe at the Parliament’s Ethics Committee for postponing the meeting to November 9 to clash with Congress MPs nomination date saying BJP calling allies to ensure attendance to adopt via majority.
She also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on November 2 alleging that she was subjected to the “proverbial vastraharan” by the chairperson of the Ethics Committee during a hearing on the cash-for-query allegations against her.
The ethics committee is probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s allegations that Moitra accepted cash and favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Hiranandani.
On October 26, Dubey and advocate Dehadrai gave “oral evidence” to the panel against Moitra. On Wednesday, meanwhile, Dubey said that Lokpal on his complaint has ordered a CBI inquiry against Moitra, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal.