New Delhi: Speaking to reporters outside Parliament Friday, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said her expulsion was “the most tenacious witch-hunt of a woman MP”. A parliamentary committee, she added, had been weaponised to bulldoze the Opposition into submission.
The Lok Sabha Friday expelled Moitra for “unethical conduct” and “contempt of the House” over ‘cash-for-query’ charges against her. She was also accused of sharing the user ID and password of the Lok Sabha Members Portal with an “unauthorised person”.
After Speaker Om Birla refused to allow Moitra to speak in her defence, the Opposition boycotted the voting, coming together in solidarity and urging Birla to allow her to speak.
“Since I was not allowed to speak inside Parliament, I take this opportunity to speak outside,” Moitra told reporters, flanked by her party colleagues and legislators of Opposition parties.
“The 17th Lok Sabha has indeed been historic. It is a House which saw the passage of the women’s reservation rescheduling bill (sic), but it also presided over the most tenacious witch-hunt of one of the 78 women MPs, a first-timer, a single woman with no political lineage, elected from a far-flung constituency on the Bangladesh border,” Moitra said.
She said the Committee on Ethics — which “ironically was set up to serve as a moral compass for Members” — was “abused egregiously” to bulldoze the Opposition, and become another weapon to force them into submission.
The Trinamool MP said the committee and its report recommending her expulsion had broken every rule in the book. “In essence, you are finding me guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist… The committee is punishing me for engaging in a practice that is routine (sharing portal login), accepted and encouraged in the House,” Moitra said.
Moitra said that one of the two “private citizens” who had testified against her were her “estranged partner (Jain Anant Dehadrai), who with malafide intention masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee”. She said she was not allowed to cross-examine any of them.
The MP also complained that the ethics panel had decided “to hang her” without calling businessman Darshan Hiranandani to orally testify. “There is no evidence of any cash, or any gifts anywhere. The recommendation of the expulsion is based solely on the grounds that I have shared my Lok Sabha portal login. There are no rules whatsoever to govern the sharing of logins as the hearing of the ethics committee demonstrates,” she said.
She added “MPs are conveyor belts to get questions from the public, from citizens and to voice that in Parliament”.
She said the Modi government would not get away with the Adani issue by shutting her up.
“Let me tell you this. This kangaroo court has only shown India that the haste and abuse of due process you have used demonstrates how important Mr Adani is to you… and to what length you will go to harass a single woman MP,” she fumed.
VIDEO | "The 17th Lok Sabha has indeed been historic. It is a House which saw the passage of the Women's Reservation Rescheduling Bill, but it has presided over the most tenacious witch-hunt of one of 78 women MPs. This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponisation of a Parliamentary… pic.twitter.com/Y0CyUG9OPw
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 8, 2023
‘Death of democracy,’ says Mamata
Trinamool boss and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it was sad that Moitra was expelled within half an hour after the report was placed in the House.
“The BJP has failed to fight politically. Mahua has been harassed and it’s a classic example of the death of democracy by not letting her speak. The party stands whole-heartedly with Mahua,” Banerjee said.
She also said the whole episode had opened their eyes about “the vindictive politics of the BJP”. “It is a sad day for Parliament. There will be elections again after a few months. We will fight boldly. These three months don’t matter. This (expulsion) will boost Mahua. The INDIA alliance is together. We will fight on. Mahua will win the next battle and people will give a fitting answer to the BJP,” the chief minister added.
Also read: BJP-led states among highest subsidy givers in 2022-23 on per capita basis, shows analysis