RNS I New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has been expelled from the Lok Sabha due to her involvement in the Cash-for-Query matter, a decision made after a discussion initiated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi on the Ethics Committee report that recommended her expulsion from the House.
When the Lok Sabha convened after the second adjournment at 2 PM, Minister Joshi presented a motion based on the Ethics Committee’s report, which had called for the expulsion of the TMC MP. Speaker Om Birla allowed a discussion on the motion and expressed his discomfort with the situation, stressing that members should uphold the dignity of Parliament and democracy, with no room for compromise.
Initiating the discussion, Congress MP Manish Tewari raised concerns that members had not been given sufficient time to review the committee’s report. He questioned the Ethics Panel’s decision to recommend Moitra’s expulsion, asserting that she had not been provided the opportunity to present her perspective during the panel’s proceedings. Tewari argued that the House was functioning as both judge and jury in deciding a member’s fate, suggesting that party whips guiding members’ votes in such cases were inappropriate.
The Speaker clarified that the House was not a court and he was not a judge, emphasizing that the decision rested with the House, not the Speaker.
Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, called for Moitra to be granted an opportunity to express her views on the Ethics Committee report and requested a minimum of four days for studying the report. TMC members also urged the Speaker to allow Moitra to speak, but he cited a precedent from 2005 when a similar request had been denied by then-Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Kalyan Banerjee of TMC questioned why the Committee had not examined businessman Darshan Hiranandani, whose statement had triggered the entire case. He dismissed allegations of cash being received for asking questions.
During the discussion, BJP MP Hina Gavit rejected the opposition’s argument that there was insufficient time to study the report. She pointed out that in 2005, during the UPA Government, a report had been presented, resulting in the expulsion of ten Lok Sabha members on the same day. Gavit highlighted that Moitra had been given adequate time to present her views to the Ethics Panel. She emphasized the gravity of the matter, involving a Member of Parliament and a businessman, where Moitra’s login and password were used at multiple locations on the same day. Gavit further noted that Moitra had asked 61 questions in the Lok Sabha, with 50 related to sectors in which businessman Hirannandani was involved, suggesting a breach of parliamentary conduct.
The motion to accept the Ethics Committee report was subsequently adopted through a voice vote. Opposition members staged a walkout during the voting. Later, the House was adjourned for the day.
The Ethics Committee had conducted an inquiry into BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s allegations that Mahua Moitra had accepted bribes and favors in exchange for posing questions in the Lok Sabha, allegedly at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani, with the intent of targeting the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
