NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha will take up Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra’s case – approving the Ethics Committee report that recommends her disqualification and the resolution to expel her – on Friday at 12 noon, Speaker Om Birla has told TMC leader in the House Sudip Bandopadhyay, on Thursday.
Moitra, who is facing disqualification from Lok Sabha, following a recommendation from the Ethics committee of the lower House, over an alleged cash-for-query scam, will also be allowed to speak in the House, when the matter comes up, the Speaker has assured, Bandopadhyay said.
The Speaker had called Bandopadhyay to his chamber on Thursday and informed him that Lok Sabha will be taking up Moitra’s case on Friday noon, the TMC leader told TOI on Thursday. On that, Bandopadhyay told Birla that the opposition wants a discussion in the House on the issue. The Speaker said that he would allot half-an-hour for it, but the TMC leader said that many parties want to speak on the issue and hence more time is required, which Birla said that he will consider, according to Bandopadhyay.
The INDIA coalition of opposition parties have jointly decided to boycott the voting in Lok Sabha after speaking on the issue when the matter comes up and stage a walkout together. Together, the opposition parties will march out of the House and walk down to the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises, to protest against the disqualification of a fellow member. This was decided at the first meeting of floor leaders of the INDIA parties, held on December 4, the first day of the Winter Session.
The matter was listed as item number five (5) in the list of business on December 4, the opening day of the Session, but was not taken up, while opposition members kept asking the Chair why the matter was being skipped. While there was no official reason for the matter not being taken up last Monday, BJP leaders and government sources said that the “party was in a celebratory mood after winning the state elections and hence did not want to spoil the upbeat atmosphere with an unpleasant issue like disqualification.”
Results were declared on December 3, a day before Parliament opened for the Winter Session.
Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation. This is the first time, since the Ethics Committee came into existence in the year 2000, that the panel has recommended expulsion of a Parliamentarian.
The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee adopted a report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from LS over a “cash-for-query” allegation. While six members voted in favour of the report, including suspended Congress MP Praneet Kaur, four Opposition MPs opposed it. The opposing members filed dissent notes calling it a “fixed match” and saying the complaint filed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a “shred of evidence”.
Dubey accused Moitra of asking questions in Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for bribes. According to him, Hiranandani used her parliamentary login ID to file questions from different places, mostly Dubai.