Mahua Moitra says TV channel securing access to Ethics Committee report amounts to 'serious breach of privilege'

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, November 9

TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla saying a TV channel securing access to the “confidential draft report” of the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics investigating the cash for query charges against her amounted to “serious breach of privilege”.

The channel belongs to the Adani Group, she pointed out.

Moitra wrote that serious breach of Rule 275(2) contained in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha took place as the TV channel got access to the report one day before it was to be presented before the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics.

“It is even more shocking because this media channel is majority owned by the Adani Group against whom I have raised very serious issues of corporate fraud and breach of financial and securities regulations, in the Lok Sabha,” Moitra wrote in her letter to Birla.

“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 in the letter.

Saying that there is clearly a total breakdown of all due process and laws of the Lok Sabha, Moitra told the Speaker that his “inaction and lack of response” to her previous complaint is “unfortunate”.

Moitra’ missive came shortly before a meeting of the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics is to be held at 4 pm on Thursday to finalise the draft report with regard to its findings in the cash-for-query probe carried out by the Committee against her.

The TV channel on Wednesday claimed exclusive access to the report and gave wide coverage to the report.