Moitra wrote to LS Speaker, claiming there was a 'serious breach of privilege' after a private channel accessed a confidential draft report.
Published Nov 09, 2023 | 4:15 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 09, 2023 | 4:15 PM
File photo pf Telangana Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy. (Supplied)
Nalgonda MP and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics Uttam Kumar Reddy has written to the Chairman of the panel, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, requesting him to postpone the meeting on Thursday, 9 November, regarding the cash-for-query allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra.
According to a notice from the Lok Sabha secretariat, the meeting, which is to consider and adopt its draft report on the allegations against Moitra, was already postponed to 9 November from 7 November.
Meanwhile, Moitra wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday, claiming there was a “serious breach of privilege” after a private news channel accessed a confidential draft report of a parliamentary panel on her alleged unethical conduct.
As Uttam Reddy is to file his nomination for the Telangana poll on 9 November, he has sought a further change in the date.
“I had received a communication that the Ethics committee meeting on Smt Mahua Moitra issue for consideration/adoption of report would be held on 07th November. Then suddenly and inexplicably the date is changed to 09th November,” Reddy said in his letter.
“As I am filing nomination for Telangana Assembly elections on 09th November, I request you to kindly postpone the meeting to any other date,” he added.
Speaking to PTI, the Congress MP said there seems to be an effort to target the TMC MP West Bengal possibly because she has been a harsh critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has questioned his alleged links with businessman Gautam Adani.
“Somebody at a very high position in the government is targeting her. They scheduled the meeting for (November) 7th and I confirmed my attendance. (But) in the last minute they changed it (to November) 9th,” he said.
“I am filling the nomination on the 9th, so I will not be able to attend the next meeting,” he explained.
Moitra alleged a “serious breach of privilege” after a private news channel accessed a confidential draft report of the parliamentary panel.
Posting a copy of her letter to the speaker on ‘X’, Moitra said, “Have not received any replies from my previous letter to Hon’ble Lok Sabha Speaker but am placing this on record anyway.”
“There is clearly a total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha. Your inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints is also unfortunate,” she said.
“However, as a matter of record, I wish to bring this egregious breach to your urgent attention,” Moitra said.
Have not received any replies from my previous letter to Hon’ble @loksabhaspeaker but am placing this on record anyway. pic.twitter.com/StZ23qf9AK
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 9, 2023
The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee looking into the “cash-for-query” allegations against Moitra is meeting later on Thursday to adopt its draft report which is likely to be hotly contested by opposition members of the panel.
The committee is learned to have recommended Moitra’s expulsion from the Lower House of Parliament on the grounds of “unethical conduct” having an impact on national security.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has accused Moitra of asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani, in exchange for alleged bribes.
He said it was Hiranandani who used her login to file questions from different places, mostly Dubai. Moitra has admitted that his office used her login details but has rejected any pecuniary considerations, asserting that most MPs share their login credentials with others to use their secretarial services.
Moitra attended the committee hearing on 2 November, concerning the cash-for-questions allegations levelled against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and later endorsed by Mumbai-based businessman Hiranandani.
She walked out of the meeting midway, in the company of a few other agitated Opposition MPs, and claimed that the committee’s Chairman Vinod Sonkar, of the BJP, “stooped to a sordid line of questioning while reading from a script”.
In a letter she later wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Moitra alleged he asked her “detailed and extremely personal questions about her private life”.
She alleged that he continued in the same manner despite other committee members cautioning him “to refrain from this filthy line of questioning”.
Sonkar denied the charges and said, “Instead of cooperating with the committee, she became angry and used unparliamentary words against the panel and the chairman”.
(With PTI inputs)
