Opposition INDIA bloc leaders questioned the recommendation for expelling Mahua Moitra, and accused the BJP of doing 'vendetta politics'.
Published Dec 08, 2023 | 5:18 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 08, 2023 | 7:40 PM
Mahua Moitra speaking to media after her expulsion from the Lok Sabha. (Screengrab)
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra was expelled on Friday, 8 December, from the Lok Sabha after the House adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interests by posing questions in Parliament.
After a heated debate over the panel report during which Moitra was not allowed to speak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the TMC member for “unethical conduct”, which was adopted by a voice vote.
Reacting sharply to her expulsion, Moitra equated the action with a hanging by a “kangaroo court” and alleged a parliamentary panel had been weaponised by the government to force the Opposition into submission.
my speech on the steps of parliament today pic.twitter.com/pe0MyJf3Af
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) December 8, 2023
She told reporters that she had been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist and that there was no evidence of cash or gift given to her.
The Ethics Committee report found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House by sharing her Lok Sabha credentials — User ID and Password of Lok Sabha Member’s Portal, with unauthorised persons which had an irrepressible impact on national security.
TMC and other Opposition members demanded that Moitra be allowed to put her views in the House, which was turned down by Speaker Om Birla citing past precedence.
Birla observed that in 2005, the then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had in a directive disallowed 10 Lok Sabha members, who were involved in a “cash for questions” scam, to speak in the House.
Joshi said in 2005 the then Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee had moved a motion to expel 10 members on the same day the report was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier, Ethics Committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the first report of the committee on the complaint filed by BJP member Nishikant Dubey against Moitra.
Opposition INDIA bloc leaders on Friday questioned the Lok Sabha Ethics Panel recommendation for expelling Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, and accused the BJP-led government of doing “vendetta politics”.
The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday amid an uproar by Opposition MPs who questioned the procedure followed by the panel and demanded a discussion on the report.
“It is a new black day in the new House. A new black chapter is starting today,” Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali, who is a member of the ethics panel and was among those who staged a walkout protesting the nature of questions that were asked to Moitra by panel chief Vinod Kumar Sonkar, said the report was incomplete.
“We believe the report is incomplete, because the deposition was not completed. Five MPs walked out and the report was adopted in two-and-a-half minutes. We want a discussion on this. The walkout by MPs was because they were asking filthy questions. It is there in the minutes (of the meeting),” he said.
Rajya Sabha MP from the CPI Binoy Viswam called the Mahua’s expulsion “political vendetta”.
“The way in which the Ethics Committee was behaving one should feel it is a politically motivated scenario with absolute vendetta. The vendetta was against a critic of the government,” he said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the report is an “inadequate document”.
“This report is a deeply inadequate document. It fails to meet the basic standards of any report that can come up with such a dramatic recommendation of expulsion. It has also been apparently adopted in two-and-a-half minutes without any serious discussion,” Tharoor said.
“…no cross-examination of those who made the accusations and no fair chance for the person who is being expelled to be heard in her own defence. For INDIA parties this is a travesty of justice,” he said.
On similar lines, Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said, “The affidavit on which it is based, the witness was not even called. His statement is golden… What he says is right, what Mahua says is wrong.”
“Even when she was called they were indulging in character assassination instead of asking issue-based questions. Expulsion will set a very wrong precedent that you can misuse power to throw any MP out of Parliament because they ask sharp questions,” she said.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, meanwhile, took a jibe at the ruling BJP and said, “This is yet another misadventure on part of BJP. All I can say is if they indulge in this misadventure they will add an extra 50,000 votes to her re-election from her constituency in 2024.”
Businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Moitra to raise questions in Parliament about the Adani Group, had claimed in a signed affidavit that the TMC MP from Krishnanagar targeted industrialist Gautam Adani to “malign and embarrass” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At a meeting on 9 November, the committee adopted its report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the “cash-for-query” allegation. Six members of the panel, including suspended Congress member Preneet Kaur, voted in favour of the report. Four members of the panel belonging to Opposition parties submitted dissent notes.
Karti Chidambaram also used the analogy of Sri Lankan cricketer Angelo Mathews’ timed-out dismissal in the recently-held cricket World Cup while slamming the government over the expulsion.
Talking to PTI outside Parliament, Chidambaram said a woman, particularly a single woman who has been humiliated and wronged, only rises in politics. He said Moitra is going to come back to the 18th Lok Sabha with a bigger winning margin of votes.
“It is a very unfortunate event. The House has relied on a very erroneous report, a report which has no legal basis. The report has violated every principle of natural justice and the procedure of evidence,” he said.
“There has been a complaint, there has been an ethics committee, there has been a recommendation and there has been an acceptance of it, which is only an eyewash,” the Congress MP said.
He alleged that this was akin to weaponising the law to eliminate an opponent.
“Two weeks ago, there was the World Cup and Angelo Mathews was timed out by Shakib (Al Hasan) of Bangladesh. Even though it was within the law, people said it was against the spirit of cricket. In India, people do not mind if one is defeated, they do not like it when you humiliate someone,” Chidambaram said.
Mathews became the first batsman to be dismissed “timed out” in international cricket when he failed to take the strike within the stipulated time of two minutes following the dismissal of Sadeera Samarawickrama in their World Cup match against Bangladesh, triggering a controversy.
(With PTI inputs)
