New Delhi: As she arrived in Parliament Friday morning, Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra said to reporters, “Maa Durga is here. We will see.”
The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee’s report on Moitra, recommending her expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha for “unethical conduct” and “contempt of the House” has been tabled in the Lower House today.
Moitra can be expelled if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation.
Speaking to reporters prior to the tabling of the report, Moitra also recited a poem by Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, which roughly translated to – “Never bow your head before the untruth, only the coward trembles but the valiant fights on.”
The ethics committee had adopted the report on 9 November and recommended Moitra’s sacking from the Lok Sabha.
The MP has been accused by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey of receiving cash and expensive gifts from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani in lieu of asking questions in Parliament.
She has also been accused of sharing her login ID and password to the Parliament portal with Hiranandani so that he could directly post the questions on her behalf.
Six members of the panel had voted in favour of the report, including suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur. Four members from the opposition parties submitted dissent notes.
The opposition members have termed the report a “fixed match” and said the complaint filed by Dubey was not supported by a “shred of evidence”.
Dubey, meanwhile, said he got “irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged” from city advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, who is said to have been in a relationship with Moitra in the past.
Dubey has also alleged that the TMC MP was bribed by Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament.
Moitra has denied all charges, saying there was no regulation regarding the sharing of login ID and password. Called to present her side before the ethics committee, Moitra had walked out of that meeting claiming she was asked “filthy questions”.
Support for Moitra
Last month, after an initial silence, Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came out in support of her MP, asserting whatever Moitra had brought up inside Parliament would now be raised before the people.
“Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha is being planned… but this will help her before the election,” Banerjee had said.
Trinamool Congress MPs at an all-party meeting last week demanded a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the ethics committee’s recommendation to expel Moitra.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also supported this, saying the opposition had “a number of very fundamental questions about this”.
“In any procedure involving expulsion, there has to be the opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses for all sides to be heard… If an MP criticises the government on the grounds that have not been substantiated and on the basis of charges that would not stand up in any court of law, then we have real trouble with how the parliamentary system is working… I am hopeful that the government is rethinking it,” he told reporters.
From an official position too, the Congress, which is an opposition ally of the Trinamool, stressed on the need for Moitra to get the opportunity to respond to the charges “hurled at her by various MPs through the media”.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said Monday that the party’s position on the allegations was very clear.
“This a political conspiracy to harass and target Mahua Moitra. We will oppose any measure the government will bring to suspend or expel her. We want a discussion on the ethics committee report,” he said.