New Delhi: The chairperson of the Parliament’s Ethics Committee and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar on Thursday handed out to all the members a copy of the reports submitted to him by the two central ministries on the complaint filed against the Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
However, a member of the committee pointed out to The Wire that though the chairperson gave them the report terming it ‘confidential’, some details of it were already put out on X (formerly Twitter) by the complainant Dubey a day before. “The report has some specific data related to the complaint which we as members were not privy to till it was shared with us today. For instance, it said Moitra’s MP account was accessed 47 times from Dubai where businessman Darshan Hiranandani is located. However, Dubey had tweeted that information yesterday itself, leaving us wondering how did he know such specific inputs from a report termed to us by the chairperson as confidential?”
महुआ जी (आरोपी सांसद) की खबर जो मीडिया में चल रही है,उसके अनुसार 47 बार दुबई में हीरानंदानी के यहाँ से mail id, सांसद portal से लोकसभा में प्रश्न पूछे गए ।यदि यह खबर सही है तो देश के सभी सांसदों को महुआ जी के भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ खड़ा होना चाहिए । हीरानंदानी के लिए हीरानंदानी ने…
— Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) November 1, 2023
Sonkar, in the previous meeting of the committee on October 26, had stated to reporters that he had sought assistance from the home and information technology ministries in probing the allegation against Moitra.
Dubey along with a lawyer, Jai Anant Dehadrai – termed by Moitra as a ‘jilted ex’ – had filed the complaint with the committee alleging that the TMC MP had accepted bribes from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in parliament. The complaint said Moitra had shared the password of the official email of her Lok Sabha account with Hiranandani, claiming it had compromised ‘national security’.
Moitra, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had shot back at Dubey, stating that his complaint was because of her questioning him in parliament about a fake degree he allegedly submitted along with his election affidavit to the Election Commission of India.
Thursday’s meeting went on for about three hours, ending in a walkout not just by Moitra but also by five members belonging to the opposition parties. “This was because she was asked irrelevant, indecent and unethical questions. We objected that such questions should not be asked by the Ethics Committee,” a member told The Wire. Asked what those questions were, the member said, “She was asked which hotel in Dubai she had stayed during her visits and with whom, etc. Opposition members found those questions posed to a woman member of parliament in an official platform very offensive and walked out of it.”
Another member told The Wire, “When the meeting started, the chairperson began asking her questions written on a paper. What was surprising was that even after she had said a ‘no’ to the primary question, parts of the questions already written on that paper were also asked by him, as if it was a task given to him that he had to mandatorily complete. Then, some members objected to the meeting starting with the chairperson questioning her because in the previous meeting, when Dubey and Dehadrai were called to depose, they were given an opportunity to present their opening statement. Finally, she was allowed to read out her statement.”
One other member said, “Throughout her statement, she had highlighted that the complaint has stemmed from a personal fight (between her and Dehadrai).”
Asked if she had shared her password with Hiranandani, Moitra admitted to taking help from his personal staff to file questions in parliament. “To this, some members pointed out to the chairperson that most MPs take help from others to file questions online,” a member related. All the questions posed to the TMC were only by the chairperson and no other member was allowed to ask questions, the member said.
Meanwhile, Sonkar accused the opposition members of “behaving unethically” before walking out. He claimed that Moitra became angry and used unparliamentary language.
Since the meeting ended with a walkout by five opposition MPs, it is not clear what is the next course of action. Aside from the chairperson, there were eleven members present in today’s meeting.
‘Demeaning, prejudiced behaviour’
Moitra slammed the Ethics Committee probe as ‘filthy, unethical, misogynistic’.
In a letter addressed to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla she said that “unethical, sordid and prejudiced behaviour” was meted out to her at the hearing of the Ethics Committee by the chairman.
“Instead of asking questions on the pertinent subject, the chairman exhibited a preconceived bias by maliciously and clearly in a defamatory way questioning me, so much so that five of the 11 members present walked out and boycotted the proceedings in protest at his shameful conduct,” the letter read.
“I request the Lok Sabha Secretariat to please disclose the regulations governing the sharing of one’s password of the portal to merely type out questions (where nothing could be submitted without an OTP which came to my mobile phone?) Why were these rules never given to MPs and if they were, why is every single MP sharing this ID an login with numerous people? Where was this Ethics Committee’s conscience when the government used the Israeli software Pegasus to spy on the judiciary, independent journalists, and members of the opposition? Was this not a grievous breach of national security?” it read.
Moitra said that she was asked extremely personal questions about her private life. And, she added, this continued even after the chairman was warned by other members of the committee to refrain from asking such questions.
After two hours of questioning, five of the committee members boycotted the proceedings, saying they would not be party to this “cheerharan“, or ‘disrobing of a woman’.
