New Delhi: If Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra looks likely to be expelled from Parliament in the cash-for-questions case, she is definitely not going down without a fight.
The firebrand TMC leader has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that there has been a “total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha”, and also accused him of “inaction”.
Moitra has referred to a draft report of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee – which is looking into allegations of the Krishnanagar MP sharing her login credentials of Parliament’s official portal with businessman Darshan Hiranandani – which was accessed by the media on Wednesday.
“There is clearly a total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha. Your inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints is also unfortunate,” Moitra wrote to Birla.
The media reported on Wednesday that the Ethics panel will recommend expulsion of Moitra from Lok Sabha for unethical conduct.
Moitra stated that a channel owned by Adani Group had access to the draft report, which was a “very serious breach of Rule 275(2) contained in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.”
“It is even more shocking because this media channel is majority owned by the Adani Group, against whom I have raised very serious issues of corporate fraud and breach of financial and securities regulations, in the Lok Sabha,” Moitra added.
“It is absolutely shocking how a channel owned by this group has access to a confidential Committee report which is the subject of my alleged unethical conduct,” she added.
Terming it as an “egregious breach” of rules, Moitra claimed she’s being targeted for speaking out against the Adani conglomerate.
Moitra defended herself by saying that she had shared the credentials for her staff to type out her questions and also rubbished accusation of accepting bribes from Hiranandani.
On November 2, she stormed out of the Ethics Committee hearing claiming that chairperson and BJP leader Vinod Sonkar had asked her ‘filthy’ personal questions.
