Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 8: Amidst opposition walk-out, the Lok Sabha on Friday expelled through a voice vote the Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra accepting the Ethics Committee report on the “cash for query” charges accusing her of taking bribes for raising questions in Parliament critical of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a business house friendly to the BJP government.
Ms Moitra, 49, was accused of taking bribes, including ₹ 2 crore in cash and “luxury gift items”, from businessman Darshan Hiranandani, in exchange for asking questions. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi moved the motion to expel Ms Moitra as per the recommendation of the Ethics committee which found her guilty of sharing her credentials with others, accepted gifts for favours from a businessman.
Though Trinamool Congress had strongly argued to allow Mahua Moitra to speak on the floor of the House, Mr Joshi quoted precedence to object. Speaker Om Birla put the resolution to vote without allowing her to speak. Opposition members walked out of the House even as the vote was being conducted.
Ms Moitra was also accused of surrendering log-in credentials to her personal and confidential account on the parliamentary website, so Mr Hiranandani could post questions directly. A fiery critic of the Modi government, Ms Moitra had denied the bribery charges but admitted to sharing the log-in details.
After a tempestuous discussion and voice vote, Mr Birla said, “This House accepts the conclusions of the Committee – that MP Mahua Moitra’s conduct was immoral and indecent. So, it is not appropriate for her to continue as an MP…”
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is also Ms Moitra’s party boss, called the expulsion “unacceptable” and said “vendetta politics of (the) BJP had killed democracy.” “Mahua will win the battle…. people will give justice. They (BJP) will be defeated in the next election,” Ms Banerjee said, drawing battle-lines before next year’s general election.
Hours earlier the Ethics Committee presented its near 500-page report in the House, triggering a furious row between the ruling BJP and the opposition, including Ms Moitra’s party. In the brief discussion that followed, apoplectic opposition MPs demanded more time to study the material, and fought for Ms Moitra to be allowed to speak.
However, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla refused permission, citing the 2005 expulsion of 10 MPs, including six from the BJP, caught in a similar controversy.
Ms Moitra, however, spoke to reporters outside Parliament after her expulsion and said the Ethics Committee “broke every rule”. “… Tomorrow, CBI will be sent to my home to harass me…” The CBI has opened an inquiry in the allegations against Ms Moitra.
The Ethics Committee report against Ms Moitra noted “allegations of accepting illegal gratification (are) clearly established and are undeniable”, and that “taking gifts from (a) businessman to whom she handed over log-in (details) amounts to a quid pro quo… unbecoming of an MP and is unethical conduct.” On the point Ms Moitra accepted cash as part of the bribes, the report called for the government to “criminally investigate and unearth the ‘money trail'”, for which it said it “does not have expertise.”
The Ethics Committee’s final recommendation was that “…Smt Mahua Moitra, MP, may be expelled from the membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha”. It also called for “a legal institutional inquiry by the Government… in view of unethical, heinous, and criminal conduct of Smt Mahua Moitra…”
Earlier Ms Banerjee accused the BJP of having “planned” the expulsion of Ms Moitra – who is one of the ruling party’s fiercest and most vocal critics. “… but this will help her in the elections,” she said.
Earlier, Ethics Committee chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the panel’s first report when the House re-convened at noon after an adjournment during the Question Hour. Trinamool Congress members and some from the Congress trooped in the Well of the House raising slogans demanding a copy of the report.
“Today I am really sad to see the attitude of BJP party. A 475 page report was submitted and after that they have half an hour time to go through it. I congratulate INDIA alliance that they supported her. Party fully supports Mahua Moitra. They didn’t allow Mahua to defend herself. It is betrayal of Constitutional rights. We have two third majority in Assembly does it mean we will expel someone,” said Ms Banerjee.
“Mahua is a victim of circumstances and party is fully behind Mahua. I am shocked and it is sad day for Parliament. It is unacceptable and Mahua will win the battle. They will be defeated in next elections,” the TMC supremo added.
Businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Ms Moitra to raise questions in Parliament about the Adani Group, had claimed in a signed affidavit that Ms Moitra targeted industrialist Gautam Adani to “malign and embarrass” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At a meeting on November 9, the Committee adopted its report recommending Ms Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the “cash-for-query” allegation. Six members of the panel, including suspended Congress member Preneet Kaur, voted in favour of the report. Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissent notes.
The Opposition members termed the report a “fixed match” and said the complaint filed by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a “shred of evidence.” Ms Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation.
“The committee broke every rule… Tomorrow, the CBI will be sent to my home to harass me,” Ms Moitra told reporters outside parliament. The ethics committee submitted the report in parliament today after weeks of cross-examining all the people involved in the matter, including the complainants lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and BJP leader Nishikant Dubey.
“… The Lok Sabha has presided over the most tenacious witch-hunt of one of the 78 MPs, a first-timer, a single woman, with no political lineage… This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponisation of a parliamentary committee,” Ms Moitra said.
“Ironically, the ethics committee which was set up to serve as a moral compass for members, instead has been abused today to do exactly what it was never meant to do – which is to bulldoze the Opposition and become another weapon to ‘thok do’ us into submission. This committee and the report have broken every rule in the book,” the visibly furious Trinamool Congress MP, flanked by Opposition MPs said. Sonia Gandhi, who was walking behind Ms Moitra, said the Opposition stands with what the Trinamool Congress MP has said.
The ethics committee doesn’t see Ms Moitra’s allegations that she was not allowed to speak today as a valid one. She had walked out during her cross-examination, calling the committee’s questioning “filthy”.
Any question of her not being allowed to speak today doesn’t arise as she was given an opportunity to present her views at the committee’s meeting. It was up to her whether she wanted to speak or not at the committee meeting held on November 2, but she can’t later claim she has not been given an opportunity to speak – this appears to be the committee’s reasoning.