New Delhi: The Lok Sabha’s Committee on Ethics has recommended the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from the 17th Lok Sabha for “unethical conduct” and “contempt of the House” for sharing the user ID and password of the Lok Sabha Members Portal with an “unauthorised person”. It also says that the MP’s alleged actions could have an impact on national security.
In its report tabled Friday, the committee headed by BJP’s Madhya Pradesh MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar has also called for a time-bound “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the government in view of “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct of Smt. Mahua Moitra”. The report also recommended action against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Kunwar Danish Ali for “unruly conduct”.
Moitra can be expelled only if a majority of MPs in the Lok Sabha vote in favour of the panel’s recommendation.
However, on the “cash for query” charges against Moitra, the parliamentary panel has recommended an investigation by the government. “The money trail of cash transaction between Smt. Mahua Moitra and Shri Darshan Hiranandani as a part of quid pro quo should be investigated by the Government of India in a legal, institutional, and time-bound manner,” the report says.
Moitra, an MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar, has been accused of taking favours from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in Parliament targeting billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani.
The allegations were made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on 15 October, who subsequently referred the matter to the ethics committee.
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What the ethics committee has found so far
In its report, the committee has said that a “threadbare examination” of Dubey’s allegation establishes “beyond doubt” that Moitra had deliberately shared her Lok Sabha login credentials with Dubai-based tycoon Hiranandani and facilitated him to operate her ‘Members Portal’ from Dubai, where Hiranandani lives.
The report says that Moitra’s Members Portal had been operated from Dubai on 47 occasions between 1 January, 2019, to 30 September, 2023. It goes on to mention that on the four occasions that Moitra visited Dubai during this period, she had not operated/accessed the login credentials of her member portal, which establishes that some other “unauthorised person” had done it.
“Therefore, Smt Mahua Moitra is guilty of unethical conduct, breach of privileges available to Members of Parliament and Contempt of the House,” the report reads, adding that Moitra’s “highly objectionable and deplorable conduct” also prima facie has an impact on “national security.”
“However, the extent of national security compromised by such irrepressible and reckless actions of Smt Mahua Moitra could only be pragmatically quantified by undertaking structured institutional inquiry by the Government of India. Notwithstanding this, all the above narrated serious misdemeanours on the part of Smt Mahua Moitra calls for severe punishment, which could not be less than her immediate expulsion from the membership of 17th Lok Sabha,” the report reads.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had informed the ethics committee that several of the documents listed in its reply are not available in the public domain, the report said.
“These include draft bills, which are circulated in advance. This leads to the possibility of leakage of such sensitive material, which could be exploited by inimical elements to the detriment of national security,” the report says.
MP Danish Ali should be admonished
The panel has also recommended that BSP MP Kunwar Danish Ali, also a member of the ethics committee, should be “admonished” for “twisting/moulding the intent of question put forth by the chairperson, Committee on Ethics to Smt Mahua Moitra during her deposition on 2 November, 2023 with the objective of fomenting the sentiments of public, at large, as well as, disparaging the self-esteem of chairperson and other members as well as breaching Rule 275(2) contained in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha”.
The committee has said that during Moitra’s deposition, when she was asked to issue clarification about her visits to Dubai between 1 January, 2019, to 30 September, 2023, and the hotel that she stayed in, Ali started shouting: “Draupadi ke cheer haran ke liye ethics committee banayi hai (Loosely translates to panel was set up to humiliate Moitra).” Soon, allegedly at the instigation of Moitra, Ali and four other MPs walked out of the meeting, the report states.
Once outside, the report notes that Ali not only “participated in divulging the proceedings of the committee but also dishonestly twisted the clarification sought by the committee from Moitra”.
“The Committee are, therefore, of the firm view that not only Smt Mahua Moitra and Kunwar Danish Ali had breached the Confidentiality Clause as contained under Rule 275(2) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, but, Shri Danish Ali is also guilty of inciting the public by way of cunningly twisting the deliberations of the Committee before the media, thereby, giving a colour of ‘gross gender bias’ of the Committee which, as per parliamentary practice and conventions regarded as an improper conduct, and liable to be punished by the House,” the report reads.
Significantly, BSP MP Danish Ali had urged Speaker Om Birla to delete the paragraph on this conduct before the report was tabled in Lok Sabha.
Rule 275(2) reads: “No part of the evidence, oral or written, report or proceedings of the Committee which has not been laid on the Table shall be open to inspection by any one except under the authority of the Speaker”.
The committee had carried out its investigation on three aspects — Moitra’s “unethical conduct and contempt of the house” by sharing her Lok Sabha login credentials, her “unethical conduct and contempt of the House by accepting money — cash and kind, amenities, and various other facilities” — from Hiranandani, and Danish Ali’s alleged “unruly conduct”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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