New Delhi: Taking serious note of the incident which damaged the image of Parliament, the Ethics Committee on Tuesday recommended the suspension of its member Chhattrapal Singh Lodha (BJP) till the completion of the inquiry.
The suspended Member has been given 48 hours to give his explanation to the House, Committee's Chairman Dr Karan Singh said. The House unanimously applauded the decision to suspend Lodha.
The Committee was set up to inquire into the sting operation ? Operation Duryodhan ? by Aaj Takand Cobrapost.com. The channel had allegedly caught several MPs belonging to various parties, including the Congress, BJP and the RJD, accepting money from representatives of an NGO.
On being asked about a time frame for the final outcome of the report, Karan Singh said: "I cannot give a firm date, but first of all we have to wait for his (Lodha) reply."
He added that the Committee would view the film again and see if there are any loose ends to be tied up or evidence to be taken. "We hope to be able to give a final report before the end of the current session of the Parliament," Singh said.
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Saying the revelations of the expose were "very painful", the Committee Chairman added, "Parliament is the fulcrum of our democratic system and this sort of activity brings the whole Parliament to disrepute, which is why we decided to move rapidly in this matter."
CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu asserted, "Parliament is going to use its powers to deal with the situation."
He agreed that it was very difficult to work out a moniterable benchmark for the questioning process, but it was upto the MPs to take responsibilty for the kind of questions that they asked.
Others like BJP spokesman VK Malhotra condemned the Parliament MPs conduct as a grave crime.
However, Mayawati's take on the Parliament revelations was rather surprising. "People of political parties from all over the country accept money," she said candidly.
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