Opposition members walked out of the House as the Lok Sabha Speaker started the voting process on the motion moved by Pralhad Joshi.
Published Dec 08, 2023 | 4:13 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 08, 2023 | 4:39 PM
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra (Wikimedia Commons)
The Lok Sabha on Friday, 8 December, expelled Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra after holding her guilty of sharing her credentials with others, and accepting gifts from a businessman to extend favours.
After a heated debate during which Moitra was not allowed to speak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the Trinamool member for “unethical conduct”, which was adopted by a voice vote.
Opposition members walked out of the House as the Lok Sabha Speaker started the voting process on the motion moved by Joshi.
The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha had recommended Moitra’s expulsion from the House over the “cash-for-query” allegation.
Meanwhile, Moitra said that the entire case against her was based on the sharing of login details, but there were no rules governing this aspect.
“MPs are like conveyor belts to bring questions from the general public to Parliament; kangaroo court punished me without evidence. There was no evidence of cash or gift, and the ethics panel decided to hang me without getting to the root of the issue,” she said.
“One of the two complainants was my estranged partner with mala fide intention who masqueraded as a common citizen before the ethics panel,” she added.
my speech on the steps of parliament today pic.twitter.com/pe0MyJf3Af
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) December 8, 2023
The committee adopted the report with six members voting in favour and four against.
Those who supported the motion were Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Vinod Sonkar (all BJP), and Hemant Godse (Shiv Sena), and suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur.
Danish Ali of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), V Vaithilingam (Congress), PR Natarajan of the CPI(M), and Giridhari Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) opposed the report.
The panel, headed by BJP MP, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, met briefly on 9 November evening to complete the process of approving the report, ready to be forwarded to Speaker Om Birla.
Sonkar told the media: “A report had been drafted by the Ethics Committee on the allegations against Mahua Moitra. The report has been drafted in today’s meeting. Six members supported the report while four members submitted their dissent notes… A detailed report is being submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker tomorrow… The action, whatever it is, will be taken by the Speaker.”
Congress member N Uttam Kumar Reddy could not attend the meeting as he was filing his nomination for the Telangana Assembly elections on the same day. He even wrote a letter to the committee chairman to postpone the meeting in view of his unavailability.
It is said the committee sought to admonish BSP MP and committee member Danish Ali for “twisting” the intent of the questions Sonkar asked Moitra at the hearing.
The panel has left it for the Union government to investigate and establish the money trail, if any.
The saga began with BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleging that Moitra had shared the login details of her Parliament account with businessman Darshan Hiranandani and accepted inducements in cash and kind for asking questions in the House targeting businessman Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dubey filed the formal complaint while an advocate, Jai Anant Dehadrai, allegedly provided evidence against Moitra. He also deposed before the committee.
Moitra deposed before the ethics panel on 2 November. However, she walked out mid-way, claiming that the panel chairman had asked her personal, unethical, and demeaning questions.
She also complained to Om Birla saying she was subjected to a “Vastraharan” (disrobing).
“How shameful is it that I, as one of only 78 female members of Lok Sabha, are subjected to ‘Vastraharan’ in the name of ‘Ethics Committee’ hearing by the Chairperson of the Committee?” Mahua Moitra said in her letter.
Four MPs on the panel belonging to Opposition parties also walked out along with her, questioning both the behaviour of the chairman and the motives of the committee.
(With PTI inputs)
