New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee Thursday adopted a report by a majority of six to four, recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from the House over the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations brought against her by BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey.
Suspended Congress MP and ethics panel member Preneet Kaur supported the decision in a meeting held Thursday. Kaur is the wife of former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had quit the Congress to join the BJP. She was suspended by the Congress in February for alleged anti-party activities.
The report will now be sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, panel chief and BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar told reporters after the meeting.
Sources said that apart from Sonkar, BJP MPs Hemant Godse, Sumedhanand, Aparajita Sarangi, and Rajdeep Roy voted in favour of Moitra’s expulsion for the remainder of the 17th Lok Sabha. The report also demanded severe punishment for Moitra, including a legal inquiry by the government in a time-bound manner.
Moitra, an MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar, has been accused of taking favours for asking questions in Parliament targeting billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani. She did it on behalf of Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani, it is alleged.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey made these charges in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on 15 October. Relying on information provided by Supreme Court advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, Dubey claimed that as many as 50 questions Moitra asked recently were “related directly to the business and personal interests of Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of the group”.
Subsequently, Birla referred the matter to the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which met twice before Thursday — on 26 October and 2 November. In its first meeting, Dubey and Dehadrai deposed before the panel, while Moitra was called in the second.
But on her day before the panel, Moitra stormed out along with the panel’s Opposition members, offended by the “personal and filthy questions”. An MP told ThePrint that in its report, the committee has also referred to Moitra’s allegations in this regard.
The ethics report states that Moitra was asked to clarify the number of times she visited Dubai between 1 January, 2019 and 30 September, 2023, and was also asked to name the hotels she stayed in.
Meanwhile, the ethics panel report has also recommended that BSP MP Danish Ali, a member of the panel, be admonished by the House for allegedly twisting the clarification sought by the committee from Moitra. Ali had called Moitra’s interrogation “Draupadi’s Cheerharan”.
Apart from Ali, CPI(M) MP P.R. Natarajan, Congress MP V. Vaithilingam, and JDU MP Giridhari Yadav submitted dissent notes Thursday and voted against the recommendation to expel Moitra.
Congress MP Uttam Kumar Reddy, who had sought the postponement of Thursday’s meeting as he was in Telangana to file his nomination, is learnt to have mailed his dissent note.
Sources said Ali, in his dissent note, raised questions on the proceedings of the committee, calling it a “total farce and a kangaroo court”. He also reiterated that Sonkar asked Moitra inappropriate questions and came to the rescue of Dehadrai during their respective depositions.
Ali also questioned the panel’s recommendation to admonish him, pointing out that at least three other Opposition MPs of the committee had also publicly lambasted its functioning, sources said.
Incidentally, Moitra has called Dehadrai a “jilted ex” and even told the panel during her 2 November session that a “sour personal relationship” triggered the allegations against her.
Natarajan underlined in his dissent note that the committee’s report reeked of political vendetta, sources said. He apparently questioned the very basis of the committee’s agenda, pointing out that the matter was taken up on the basis of allegations made by a person with a known history of personal animosity against Moitra.
Claiming that Sonkar read out from a prepared script, Natarajan said the panel could not find any evidence to support the allegations made by the complainants against Moitra.
The CPI(M) MP also argued in his note that just like Moitra used the office of Darshan Hiranandani to type out her Lok Sabha questions, many MPs use assistants, interns, relatives and friends for help in parliamentary work.
Earlier, Darshan Hiranandani had submitted a written affidavit to the ethics committee, claiming he had access to Moitra’s Parliament portal user ID and password, “so that I could post the questions directly on her behalf when required”.
Meanwhile, Moitra wrote to Om Birla Thursday, alleging the draft report of the committee — which recommended her expulsion — was leaked to a media house.
“I have been targeted for speaking out against this corporate giant and it is absolutely shocking how a channel owned by this group has access to a confidential committee report which is the subject of my alleged unethical conduct,” Moitra wrote.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Lok Sabha ethics panel votes 6:4 against MP Mahua Moitra in ‘cash-for-query’ row, expulsion likely