Expulsion of Moitra from Lok Sabha betrayal of parliamentary democracy: Mamata
NEW DELHI, Dec 8: Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra was expelled on Friday from the Lok Sabha after the House adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest.
After a heated debate over the panel report 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.
The Ethics Committee report found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House by sharing her Lok Sabha credentials — User ID and Password of Lok Sabha Member’s Portal, with unauthorised persons which had an irrepressible impact on national security.
The motion moved by Joshi said that Moitra’s “conduct has further been found to be unbecoming as a member of parliament for accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest which is a serious misdemeanour and highly deplorable conduct” on her part.
Joshi urged the House to accept the recommendation and finding of the committee and “resolve that continuance of Mahua Moitra as member of Lok Sabha is untenable and she may be expelled from the membership of the Lok Sabha”.
Trinamool Congress and other opposition members demanded that Moitra be allowed to put her views in the House, which was turned down by Speaker Om Birla citing past precedence.
Birla observed that in 2005, the then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had in a directive disallowed 10 Lok Sabha members, who were involved in a ‘cash for questions’ scam, to speak in the House.
Joshi said in 2005 the then Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee had moved a motion to expel 10 members on the same day the report was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier, Ethics Committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the first report of the Committee on the complaint filed by BJP member Nishikant Dubey against Moitra.
Hanged by a kangaroo court: Moitra
TMC leader Mahua Moitra on Friday equated her expulsion from the Lok Sabha with hanging by a “kangaroo court” and alleged a parliamentary panel is being weaponized by the government to force the opposition into submission.
Minutes after her expulsion as a Lok Sabha member, Moitra said she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist and that there was no evidence of cash or gift given to her. The Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha had recommended her expulsion in the “cash-for-query” case.
Flanked by leaders of the opposition bloc INDIA who staged a walkout from the House, including former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Moitra read out a speech that she said was intended to be placed on the floor of the House.
Moitra was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the Ethics Committee report, citing precedents.
“The 17th Lok Sabha has indeed been historic, it is the House which saw the passage of women’s reservation rescheduling bill, but it has presided over the most tenacious witch-hunt of one of 78 women MPs, a first-timer, a single woman with no political lineage, from a far-flung constituency on the Bangladesh border,” Moitra said.
The Ethics Committee report was tabled in the House Friday noon. Later the government moved a motion seeking her expulsion from the House, saying her continuation as an MP has become “untenable”.
“This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponization of a parliamentary committee,” she said.
“This report has broken every rule in the book. In essence you are finding me guilty of breaking a code of ethics that does not exist. Committee is punishing me for engaging in a practice that is routine, accepted and encouraged in the House,” she said.
She said one of the two complainants was her estranged partner with a mala fide intention who “masqueraded” as a common citizen before the ethics panel.
“The findings are based solely on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms, none of whom I was allowed to cross-examine,” she said.
She said the two testimonies that have been used to “hang” her are polar opposite. “The complainant says I accepted cash and consideration from a businessman to ask questions in furtherance of his commercial interests.
But the businessman’s suo motu affidavit says I pressured him to upload questions to further my agenda,” she said.Moitra said the ethics panel did not go to the root of the issue and did not summon businessman Hiranandani who made the allegations against her.
“Recommendation of expulsion is solely on the ground that I shared my Lok Sabha login credentials. There are no rules whatsoever to govern the sharing of logins.
As the hearing of the Ethics Committee demonstrates, all of us MPs are conveyor belts to get questions from citizens, the public, and to voice that in Parliament,” she said. (PTI)