Trinamool Congres MP Mahua Moitra, who appeared earlier than the Parliamentary Ethics Committee within the alleged cash-for-query case, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday. In her letter, the TMC chief alleged that she was subjected to the “proverbial vastraharan” by the chairperson of the Ethics Committee Vinod Sonkar throughout a listening to in New Delhi.
The TMC MP additionally alleged that Sonkar, as a substitute of asking questions pertinent to the matter, exhibited a preconceived bias by questioning her in a malicious and defamatory means.
She wrote, “I write to you in great anguish today to update you on the unethical, sordid, and prejudiced behaviour meted out to me at the hearing of the Ethics Committee by the Chairman. I have been subjected to the proverbial ‘vastraharan’ by him in the presence of all members of the Committee.”
Citing Dehadrai’s submission, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had filed a criticism towards her with the Lok Sabha Speaker who referred the matter to the committee.
“The committee ought to designate itself under a name other than the Ethics Committee as it has no ethics and morality left. Instead of asking questions pertinent to the subject, the Chairman exhibited a preconceived bias by maliciously and clearly in a defamatory way questioning me, so much so that 5 of the 11 members present walked out and boycotted the proceedings in protest at his shameful conduct,” she mentioned in her strongly worded letter.
Countercharges by Sonkar
The Ethics committee chairperson later mentioned the committee had been tasked with conducting a complete probe into the matter and that as a substitute of cooperating, Moitra turned indignant together with opposition MPs walked out of the assembly abruptly. He claimed Moitra used “objectionable words” and made unethical claims towards him.
Dubey in his criticism claimed that Moitra requested questions, which had been keyed in by her parliamentary account, at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani. It was additionally alleged that she shared her login credentials with the Dubai-based businessman.
In her letter, the TMC MP additionally requested the Lok Sabha Secretariat to disclose the laws governing the sharing of 1’s login and password of the portal to merely kind out questions, including that nothing may very well be submitted with out an OTP.
“Why were these rules never given to MPs and if they were why is every single MP sharing this id and login with numerous people?” she mentioned.
“I repeatedly protested on record that while the Chairman was welcome to ask me any question relevant to the enquiry- namely on the login and on those allegations of gifts for which evidence, or rather complete lack of it, existed he could not ask me detailed personal questions making insinuations about my dignity as a woman,” the MP added.
Earlier, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi mentioned the proceedings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee are confidential by nature and they need to haven’t spoken outdoors concerning the assembly.
“The very thing that she (Moitra) did was wrong. They all came out and they all said things about the committee, about the goings on within the committee, it was wrong. These things are very confidential. The conduct of Mahua Moitra was condemnable. She used unparliamentary words for our chairman and for all the members of the committee. So, the chairperson of the Committee was asking questions regarding the contents of the affidavit by Hiranandani and she did not want to answer them. And then they created a ruckus,” she added.
(With PTI inputs)
