NEW DELHI: It was all over in two minutes. On Thursday, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha, arrived for the panel’s meeting on action against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in the cash-for-query controversy 15 minutes late. A resolution was then read out on the adoption of the draft report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha citing her “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal” actions. It was adopted 6:4. Meeting over.
“No discussion. All decisions were one-sided,” BSP’s Danish Ali later said, who had voted against the report. The six members who supported the resolution were BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Vinod Sonkar, Hemant Godse and suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur. Danish Ali, Congress’s V Vaithilingam, CPM’s P R Natarajan, and JD(U)’s Giridhari Yadav opposed the report.
Five opposition MPs submitted dissent notes alleging that the inquiry process was a farce and a “proverbial kangaroo court”. The complaint against Moitra has “no merit, is unfounded and without a shred of evidence, and is being used to malign and defame a lady member of the Lok Sabha”, said a dissent note, according to sources. The members said that “no documentary evidence” of any cash or kind in bribe, being either given or taken, was provided by the complainant either in the written complaint or at the oral hearing on October 26.
The report will be sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for further action. It will be laid on the floor of the House and discussed during the winter session, scheduled to begin from December 4, said P D T Achary, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha. A vote on a government motion for the member’s expulsion will follow. The House has to adopt the report to effect Moitra’s expulsion, said Achary.
Terming the decision unusual, he pointed out that this is perhaps the first time that the panel has recommended the expulsion of an MP. Moitra is accused of accepting bribes and favours from business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani. The panel also recommended a “legal, intensive, institutional and time-bound investigation” into the matter.
Trinamool support
Breaking its silence on charges against Moitra, Trinamool’s No 2 Abhishek Banerjee stood by her asking why the panel recommended her expulsion when nothing had been proved so far | P11