The committee adopted the report 6 to 4. Congress MP Uttam Reddy missed the vote as he was filing nomination papers in Telanagana.
Published Nov 09, 2023 | 6:38 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 09, 2023 | 7:55 PM
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra (Wikimedia Commons)
The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday, 9 November, approved its draft report in the cash-for-query case against TMC MP Mahua Moitra, recommending her expulsion from the Lower House of Parliament.
The report will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday. The fate of Moitra is in the Speaker’s hands now.
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, and 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 Thursday evening to complete the process of approving the report, ready to be forwarded to 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 Thursday. 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.
Meanwhile, Moitra on Thursday wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla claiming that a news channel owned by a business group had accessed the committee’s draft report.
She alleged in the letter posted on X: “A very serious breach of rule 275 (2) contained in the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Lok Sabha where the draft report by the Committee on Ethics on the subject of Unethical Conduct by Mahua Moitra, MP, was accessed by a media channel on November 8, a day before it is to be placed before the Committee.”
She said that this was a total breakdown of the rules of the Lok Sabha.
“Your inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints is also unfortunate,” she told the Speaker.
Soon after the report’s details came out, the Trinamool Congress, which had originally vacillated about supporting her, backed her openly.
Party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said Moitra was a “victim of politics”, adding she was “competent enough to fight her own battles”.
Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary told South First: “It was a confidential report. It would not be a public document before the Speaker places it in Lok Sabha. By leaking the content to the media, the committee has exposed its bias and vested interest. The real intention has been exposed.”
He added: “Moitra’s letter to the speaker has solid grounds. If sharing a password and username with a third party involved crime and unethical behaviour, there would be very few parliamentarians in India without being disqualified. Most MPs and MLAs have little grasp of the software and most are soliciting the help of others to file questions.”
He continued: “Under prevailing rules, disclosing username and password to others is not a crime.”
The saga began with BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleging that Moitra had shared the log-in 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”.
“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.
There is speculation now about the Speaker’s action. The question is: Will he accept the recommendation for expelling Moitra?
In 2005, 11 members of Parliament were charged of taking bribes for posing queries in Parliament.
The members were Chhatarpal Singh Lodha (BJP), Anna Saheb M K Patil (BJP), Manoj Kumar (RJD), Chandra Pratap Singh (BJP), Ram Sewak Singh (Congress), Narender Kumar Kushwaha (BSP), Pradeep Gandhi (BJP), Suresh Chandel (BJP), Lal Chandra Kol (BSP), YG Mahajan (BJP), and Raja Rampal (BSP).
Eventually, the Lok Sabha expelled 10 members while Lodha was also later expelled from the Rajya Sabha.
The MPs moved the court against the decision, but in 2007, the Supreme Court in its ruling upheld the Parliament decision.
