Lok Sabha Ethics Panel to Adopt Draft Report on Nov 7 in ‘Cash for Query’ Probe Against Mahua Moitra

The Lok Sabha ethics committee will meet on November 7 to consider and adopt its draft report in relation to the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey. The 15-member committee is likely to take a grim view of her conduct with BJP members in a majority.

The situation has worsened after Moitra stormed out of the last meeting on November 2 and accused the parliamentary panel’s chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar of asking filthy and personal questions to her, a charge he denied. He later responded to this by alleging that the MP created a ruckus, got angry, used unparliamentary language and stormed out of the meeting in which she was supported by opposition members of the panel.

The meeting for adopting the draft report means that the committee has finished its inquiry and will now be making its recommendation after its members split along party lines in their last get-together.

What are the allegations against Moitra?

Dubey has accused Moitra of asking questions in Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for bribes. He said it was Hiranandani who used her login ID to file questions from different places, mostly Dubai.

Later, Hiranandani also alleged that Moitra took bribes in the form of expensive gifts and even submitted an affidavit to this effect to the ethics committee.

At the meeting for the hearing in the matter, Moitra has accused of displaying indecent antics and using unparliamentary language against Sonkar. Dubey later said Moitra was abusive towards the chairperson because he is from the other backward classes (OBC). He further alleged that the TMC MP was creating a false narrative in the media about the meeting.

What is Moitra’s rebuttal?

Moitra has admitted that Hiranandani used her login details but has rejected any pecuniary considerations, asserting that most MPs share their credentials with others. After the last hearing, however, she alleged that she was asked humiliating questions.

In a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, Moitra said she was subjected to a vastraharan (proverbial disrobing) with the chairperson asking her irrelevant details about her personal life. She said she registered her protest and submitted that she will reply to any relevant question through affidavit.

“You had five members of the committee (out of 11 present) who walked out in protest against the chairman’s behaviour. It was anything but an Ethics Committee, it was the most unethical hearing possible. While the chairman came with a pre-written script from which he was reading out, which contained the most disgusting, invasive, private details about my personal life, which had nothing to do with the hearing whatsoever,” she alleged.

Moitra said she was not asked any relevant question about the NIC logins or the gifts she is supposed to have received from Hiranandani.

“The two issues which were to be decided was the issue of the NIC login portal, I was not even given a copy of the NIC report. I have already said my NIC login…questions were done by my friend’s office, I have already said that, there were no rules governing it, and every MP shares it with at least 10 people in the course of their tenure. So that was the issue to be decided…,” she said. 

“The first complainant had said about cash and gifts. There is no mention of cash anywhere, nor was it brought up in the query, so there is no cash,” she said, while detailing the gifts and help she had received from her businessman friend.

(With PTI inputs)