New Delhi : Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s deposition before the Ethics Committee of Parliament on Thursday in an alleged cash-for-query case sparked fireworks as the members of the Committee, owing allegiance to the Opposition, walked out in between.
With Moitra facing heat from both Lok Sabha and her party TMC, she refuted the allegations but admitted that she shared her parliamentary login with businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who admitted to posting questions on Moitra’s parliamentary login.
Sources privy to the matter allege that nearly 47 log-ins to her parliamentary account were made from Dubai.
Moitra is likely to be expelled from Parliament if the allegations against her are proved, for which some evidence has been shared by the IT and the Home Ministry with the panel headed by BJP MP Vinod Sonkar.
Interestingly, the firebrand and most vocal TMC leader carried all her luxury bags, beauty products, and other luxury items for the Ethics committee to examine, as alleged by Hiranandani that he gifted to her.
Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee is probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s “cash-for-query” allegations against the TMC MP. He has accused Moitra of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
After the meeting, BJP MP and panel member Aparajita Sarangi, however, said that Moitra behaved in an angry, rude, and arrogant manner when she was asked about the affidavit submitted to the committee by businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
However, Opposition members talking to the media accused the Ethics panel’s chairperson of asking the TMC MP personal and unethical questions, Sonkar, who continued the deliberations even after the walkout, later counter-accused the Opposition members of behaving unethically and boycotting to detract from allegations against Moitra.
Talking to reporters after the meeting ended, Sonkar alleged that objectionable words were used against the committee’s functioning and against him.
Moitra later wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging “unethical, sordid, prejudiced” behaviour meted out to her at ethics panel hearing.
Opposition members of the committee, which had asked Moitra to depose before it in connection with allegations of “gifts-for-query” against her, also questioned the manner in which the meeting was conducted.
“We found the Ethics committee chairperson’s questions to Moitra undignified and unethical,” Congress MP and panel member N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters after the walkout.
Moitra has been accused of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
Sources said Moitra pleaded innocence to the allegations levelled against her and told the parliamentary committee that the charge is motivated by animus of advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai after she broke her personal relations with him.
She was supported by Opposition MPs, including Reddy and Danish Ali of the BSP, in the meeting while a few BJP members, including VD Sharma, wanted her to respond to the substantive part of the allegations and not make it all about the personal relationship going bad.
Sources said a large part of her deposition before the committee was about her relationship with Dehadrai as she appeared to blame him for the leaks and allegations.
Citing Dehadrai’s submission, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had filed a complaint against her with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla who referred the matter to the committee.
Separately talking to reporters, Dubey said Moitra tried to create a wrong narrative about the proceedings and the Opposition was perturbed that the ethics panel was headed by an OBC MP. “No power can save Moitra after all evidence provided by me and others against her,” said Dubey.
Dubey has accused Moitra of compromising national interest by sharing her parliamentary portal log-in and password with an outsider, and has cited the agreement MPs sign to keep the details secret to demand action against her.
What has added to Moitra’s woes is an affidavit by the businessman in which he admitted to giving bribes to her so that she could ask questions to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said she claimed that Hiranandani was forced by the government to file the affidavit and has sought to question him during her appearance at the panel, an unlikely eventuality as it is not a standard practice in the working of such parliamentary panels.
The TMC MP has also claimed that the Adani Group is behind the “bogus” charges due to her strident criticism of the business conglomerate.
