Cash-for-query row: Trinamul MP Mahua Moitra expelled from Lok Sabha amid Opposition protest

On Thursday, Sudip Bandopadhyay told Speaker Om Birla that Trinamul and other Opposition parties want a proper discussion on the report, therefore enough time should be allotted, but Birla is said to have said that only 30 minutes had been allotted for the report

TMC MP Mahua Moitra arrives during the Winter session of Parliament.: PTI Photo

TT , 08.12.23 : The Lok Sabha on Friday expelled Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra after holding her guilty of sharing her credentials with others and accepting gifts from a businessman to extend favours.

After a heated debate during which Moitra was not allowed to speak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the Trinamool member for "unethical conduct", which was adopted by a voice vote.

Opposition members walked out of the House as the Lok Sabha speaker started the voting process on the motion moved by Joshi.

The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha had recommended Moitra's expulsion from the House over the "cash-for-query" allegations.

Reacting to her expulsion, Mitra told journalists outside Parliament that the Ethics Committee broke every rule.

Earlier:

• MP and leader of the Trinamul parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay requests that their party MP Mahua Moitra, against whom the ethics committee has ruled, be allowed to speak and defend herself
• Give us 3-4 days time to go through ethics panel report: Cong MP Adhir Chowdhury
• Can ethics panel override principles of natural justice, asks Congress MP Manish Tewari
• Speaker allows 30 minutes for discussions on ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra
• Speaker Om Birla said if some strict decisions have to be taken against any member, they have to be taken to uphold the dignity of the House.
• Govt moves motion to adopt recommendations of ethics panel report on cash-for-query allegations against Trinamul MP Mahua Moitra
• Lok Sabha proceedings resumes
• Lok Sabha adjourned till 2pm amid uproar
• Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee recommended expulsion of Mahua Moitra over the "cash-for-query" allegation
• Ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra 'cash for query' row tabled in Parliament, Opposition shouts slogans
• Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 noon amid uproar over listing of ethics panel report on TMC MP Mahua Moitra: reports PTI

TMC MP Mahua Moitra arrived at the new Parliament building on Friday morning but just before entering said, "They have started the vastra haran (attempted disrobing of Draupadi). Now you will witness the Mahabharat war.”

The report of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee in the “cash-for-query” case against her is set to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday along with a resolution recommending her expulsion, sources have said.

Dressed in a red-bordered off-white saree, a smiling Moitra asked reporters, “What do you think about how I am today?” “Maa Durga has arrived. We will see what happens now,” she said.

Moitra also quoted poet Nazrul Islam to make her point on never to bow the head before falsehood and keep fighting against lies with bravado.

If the House votes in favour of the resolution recommending Moitra’s expulsion, it would mark the end of the Trinamul leader’s stint in the current Lok Sabha, whose term expires in less than six months. The likelihood of the resolution being passed is high since the BJP commands a brute majority in the lower House.

The revised list of business of the Lok Sabha for Friday, uploaded late on Thursday, had the ethics panel report on the agenda at No. 7.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday called Trinamul’s House leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay to his chamber and informed him that the Ethics Committee report would be tabled in the House on Friday afternoon, an apparent attempt to get a sense of the Opposition’s position on it, according to the sources.

Sudip was learnt to have told Birla that Trinamul and other Opposition parties want a proper discussion on the report, therefore enough time should be allotted. Birla is said to have informed Sudip that only 30 minutes had been allotted for the report.

“Half an hour is too little. Our leader told the Speaker that more time is needed since apart from Moitra, who rightfully should be allowed to speak and defend herself, other Opposition leaders too want to speak on the issue,” a Trinamul MP said. The Speaker heard Sudip’s plea but refrained from giving any assurance on extending the time allotment.

After the report is tabled, it will be followed by voting on a resolution recommending the expulsion of the Trinamul MP. “If the report is tabled, we will insist on a full-fledged discussion as the draft report was adopted in minutes,” BSP member Danish Ali, who is a member of the Ethics Committee, told reporters.

The Ethics Committee headed by BJP lawmaker Vinod Sonkar had adopted the report recommending Moitra’s expulsion on November 9 after 6 members of the 11-member panel had voted in favour.

Four members belonging to the Opposition parties had submitted dissent notes.

The report was scheduled to be tabled on the first day of the ongoing winter session on Monday but was dropped at the last moment, apparently because the BJP didn’t want to spoil the jubilatory mood over the electoral victories in states.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had accused Moitra of taking cash to ask questions in the Lok Sabha and written to Speaker Birla seeking an inquiry in October. The Speaker had swiftly handed over the case to the Ethics Committee for an inquiry. Earlier, Moitra had accused Dubey of obtaining fake degrees and sought an inquiry.

Dubey had used the complaint of a Supreme Court lawyer, Jai Anant Dehadrai, to the CBI to claim that there was “irrefutable evidence” against Moitra taking cash from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament to target the Adani group and Modi. Moitra had called Dehadrai her “jilted ex”.

Dubey had in his complaint claimed that Mahua had given her Parliament login ID to Hiranandani to post questions on her behalf. Though the Trinamul MP admitted she had given her Parliament login ID to her “businessman friend”, she firmly denied taking cash from him. Moitra had also walked out of the Ethics Committee meeting when she was called for an examination, alleging that she had been asked unethical and filthy questions.