New Delhi: The Lok Sabha ethics panel Thursday adopted the final report on the “cash-for-query” charges against Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator Mahua Moitra by a six to four majority.
Without detailing their recommendations on the measures to be taken against Moitra, Ethics Committee chief and BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar said Thursday that the report would now be sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Sonkar told reporters: “Today’s agenda was to adopt the report that the Ethics Committee drafted on the allegations against Mahua Moitra. Six members supported the report while four members submitted their dissent notes… The report will be submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker tomorrow. And action, whatever it is, will be decided by the Speaker.”
The Ethics Committee’s Report is learnt to have recommended Moitra’s expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha on grounds of “unethical conduct”.
The panel were probing allegations that the Trinamool MP accepted cash and expensive gifts from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament that targeted the Adani Group.
She has also been accused of sharing her parliamentary login credentials with Hiranandani, which the ethics panel reportedly labelled “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal”. The panel has reportedly called for a time-bound legal and institutional inquiry by the government.
Meanwhile, the four Opposition MPs in the panel said in their dissent note that the inquiry had not been fair. They said Hiranandani should also have been summoned by the panel to “ensure a free and fair inquiry in all respects”.
It is learnt the ethics committee report has also admonished vocal Opposition MP — BSP’s Danish Ali — for violating Rule 275 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha which deals with confidentiality of proceedings of Parliamentary committees.
Ali has been accused of “twisting” the intent of the questions asked to Moitra on 2 November, when she was summoned to present her defence.
Moitra and five members of the Opposition — Ali, Congress’s Uttam Kumar Reddy and V. Vaithilingam, CPM’s P.R. Natarajan and JD(U)’s Giridhari Yadav — had walked out of the panel’s meeting that day, decrying the question asked by Sonkar. Condemning their personal nature, Ali had likened Moitra’s interrogation to “Draupadi’s Cheerharan”.
Upon hearing the panel’s critique of him, Ali told reporters Thursday that there could not be two laws in the country. “Rule 275 is being violated continuously by the Chairperson of the Ethics Committee. We have raised our voice against injustice and we will continue to do that… We will not be scared,” he said.
Charges against Moitra
Hours after she stormed out of the 2 November meeting, Moitra had also written to Speaker Om Birla, complaining that committee chairperson Sonkar had subjected her to “the proverbial vastraharan” in the presence of all members of the panel.
In her letter, Moitra said she had faced “unethical, sordid, and prejudiced behaviour” at the meeting, where she appeared on the cash-for-query charges.
The charges have been brought against Moitra by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who alleged the Trinamool MP had asked questions in Parliament at the behest of Hiranandani. He said she took cash and gifts, and also shared her login details with the businessman so that he could directly post the questions on the parliamentary site.
Dubey’s complaint to Speaker Om Birla was based on irrefutable evidence provided by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, Dubey said.
Moitra has called Dehadrai her “jilted ex” and taken both to court for defamation.
The Speaker then referred the allegations to the Ethics Committee, which held two meetings prior to Thursday’s — the first on 27 October to hear Dubey and Dehadrai, and the second on 2 November to question Moitra. Thursday’s meeting had the single agenda of adopting the recommendations against Moitra.
Incidentally, the 15-member ethics committee has seven members from the BJP, three from the Congress, and one each from the BSP, the Shiv Sena, the YSRCP, the CPI(M) and the JD(U).
Congress MP Preneet Kaur was one of the six MPs who supported the panel’s report Thursday