Expelling Mahua Moitra from Parliament will make her More Popular:” Mamata Banerjee to BJP
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 23: For the first time since the controversy surrounding the Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra over the alleged “cash for query” unfolded some three months ago, the West Bengal chief minister and the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday virtually threw a challenge to the ruling BJP saying that expelling her from the Lok Sabha would only make her more popular among her voters on the eve of the Parliamentary elections.
The stage is all set to expel Ms Moitra from Parliament if the House accept the recommendation of the BJP-dominated Ethics Committee which held her guilty in the complaint that she was taking bribes from industrialist Darshan Hiranandani for asking embarrassing questions against the Adani group and through him target the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The issue is expected to come up in the Lok Sabha in the coming winter session of Parliament next month.
Breaking her silence on the controversy, Ms Banerjee said her likely expulsion from the Lok Sabha would only boost her chances in next year’s general election. “Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha is being planned… but this will help her before the election,” Ms Banerjee said Thursday at an event in Kolkata.
“They have planned to chase out Mahua. She will become popular for three months. What she said inside… she will say outside. She will hold press conferences every day. What does she lose?”
Ms Banerjee also ripped into the ruling BJP over the arrests of her party’s MLAs, including Minister Jyotipriya Mallick, who was taken into custody this month in an alleged multi-crore ration scam. “They have arrested four MLAs… think they can reduce our strength like this. We have also decided. If they defame four of us… there are cases of murder against them. I will put eight of them in jail,” she said.
Prior to this short, but significant message, of support, Ms Banerjee had refused to discuss the furore surrounding Ms Moitra, who is accused of taking bribes, including ₹ 2 crore in cash, from Hiranandani to ask questions targeting the Modi government in Parliament.
The Trinamool’s silence was jumped on by the BJP, which claimed Ms Moitra has been “abandoned”, and that Ms Banerjee’s silence was an admission of her party leader’s guilt.
However, amid the controversy Ms Moitra was given new responsibilities in the party – district chief of the party’s Krishnanagar (Nadia North) office, which falls within her Lok Sabha constituency. Previously, the only senior Trinamool leader to publicly discuss Mahua Moitra was Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s National General Secretary, and that was only a brief reference, calling Ms Moitra a “victim of politics.”
And, before that, the Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien simply said the party would take an appropriate decision after the inquiry that finished this month – following a stormy hearing in which Ms Moitra accused the committee of asking “filthy and personal” questions while recording her statement.
In its report, now before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the committee finding her actions “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal,” had recommended her expulsion from Parliament. Ms Moitra has been accused of sharing the login credentials for her account on the top-secret Parliament server. She has admitted to this, arguing it is common practice for all MPs but had denied having taken any bribe. Following the Moitra episode, the Parliament secretariat had issued notices to all the MPs not to share the login credentials with anyone.
