Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from Lok Sabha on Friday in cash for query case after the lower house voted in favour of her expulsion. The motion was put to vote by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla after the parliamentary ethics committee's report was tabled and discussed in parliament. The committee had recommended Moitra's expulsion.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi proposed the acceptance of the ethics committee's report, which had determined the culpability of expelled TMC MP Mahua Moitra in the case.
Mahua Moitra was representing the Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency of West Bengal after winning the election in 2019.
Reacting to her expulsion, Moitra said that the Ethics Panel decided without any proof of wrongdoing or cash flow in the case. She also said that the ethics panel did not even summon the businessman named in the matter, who she is accused of providing her parliament login in return of alleged favours.
"The recommendation of expulsion is solely based on the ground that I have shared my Lok Sabha portal login. There are no rules whatsoever to govern the sharing of login. As the hearing of ethics committee demostrates, all of us MPs are conveyor belts to get questions from the public, from citizens, and voice that in parliament. What is important is that if this Modi government thought that by shutting me up, they are going to do away with Adani issue, let me tell you this Kangaroo court has only shown to all of India that the haste and the abuse of due process you have used demonstrates how important Mr Adani is to you and to what length you will go to harass a single woman MP into shutting her into submission," Mahua Moitra told reporters outside the parliament, as other opposition leaders, including CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, stood besides her.
"The complainant says I accepted cash and consideration from a businessman to ask questions in furtherance of his commercial interest. But the businessman's suo-motu affidavit says I pressurised him into uploading questions to further my agenda. The two are at polar opposites. The ethics committee, without getting to the root of it, has decided to hang me. It refused to summon the businessman to orally testify and there is no proof of any cash or any gifts anywhere," she added.
