Ethics panel wants TMC MP Mahua Moitra out from Lok Sabha

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, November 9

The Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics on Thursday adopted the draft report prepared by it after examining the complaint given by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey against Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra alleging her direct involvement in cash-for-query in Parliament.

Editorial: More trouble for Moitra

The report recommends the expulsion of Moitra from the Lok Sabha for her “unethical conduct”. In the meeting of the ethics committee held here today, six members voted in favour of the report while four opposed it. Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, suspended by the Congress for “anti-party activities”, voted in favour of the report.

‘Cash-for-query’: security threat cited

• The LS Ethics Committee has cited threats India faces from state and non-state cyber actors to indict Mahua Moitra for sharing her log-in credentials with businessman Darshan Hiranandani
• It noted Hiranandani has residency rights in Dubai and has close relatives who are foreign nationals
• “This creates a serious risk of leakage of sensitive material to foreign agencies,” the panel concluded
• The report also cited an MHA report to record that her portal was operated 47 times from the UAE between July 2019 and April 2023, a source said

The report was also favoured by committee chairman and BJP MP Vinod Sonkar and other saffron party MPs Rajdeep Roy, Sumedhanand Saraswati and Aparajita Sarangi and Shiv Sena’s Hemant Tukaram Godse.

PR Natarajan (CPM), Giridhari Yadav (JD-U), V Vaithilingam (Congress) and Danish Ali (BSP) opposed it. These MPs submitted identical dissenting notes to Sonkar. Of the 15 members on the ethics panel, five were not present for today’s meeting.

After the meeting which lasted about 20 minutes only, Sonkar told reporters the report would be handed over to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla tomorrow. He said the draft report had been circulated last evening among the members. “The only agenda today was the adoption of the report,” he added.

Refusing to divulge the contents of the report, he said it would be made public after it is accepted by the Lok Sabha Speaker and directions are issued for further action.

The dissenting notes given by the opposition MPs slammed the “expulsion” recommendation. “This committee cannot recommend expulsion – its mandate is limited to recommending suspension. In the absence of any proof, how can this committee recommend expulsion… this has been done for political reasons and will set a dangerous precedent,” the dissenting note submitted by one of the opposition MPs stated.

The dissenting MPs also took exception to the committee’s recommendation to admonish BSP member Danish Ali. “How is the committee recommending that Danish Ali must be admonished for speaking against the ‘derogatory’ questioning of Mahua Moitra? Danish Ali cannot be singled out for breach of Rule 275 (2) because you yourself have breached this rule by speaking to the Press repeatedly,” stated the note addressed to the panel chairman by a dissenting MP.

The dissenting MPs also objected to leak of the report last night to a TV channel owned by the Adani Group.

Meanwhile, the TMC came out in support of Moitra, with party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee claiming that whoever questioned the government was “harassed” by the BJP-led NDA dispensation at the Centre.

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