TMC leader Mahua Moitra, who was expelled as a Lok Sabha MP over the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations against her, slammed the ethics committee and the Centre for “silencing” her. She claimed the ethics panel report was an attempt to bulldoze the Opposition.
Leading Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra, who was banished from the Lok Sabha for his involvement in the ‘cash-for-query’ issue, attacked the ethics committee on Friday, accusing it of “acting without proof” and turning it into a “weapon” to “bulldoze” the opposition.
Moitra said the ethics committee and its report “broke every rule in the book” in remarks made to reporters following her expulsion from the Parliament. This came about as a result of the Lok Sabha discussing the ethics panel report that suggested her dismissal
“A parliamentary committee has been weaponized, as witnessed by this Lok Sabha. The TMC leader stated, “It is ironic that the ethics committee, which was established as a moral compass for members, is being abused and forced to do precisely what it was never intended to do—bulldoze the opposition and turn into just another tool to ‘thok do’ us into submission.
She claimed that the two private people whose accounts “contradicted each other in material terms” were the only ones used as the basis for the ethics panel report. “You are finding me guilty or breaching a code of ethics that does not exist,” she stated.
MUST READ “The Archies” Review: Agastya, Khushi, and Suhana make spectacular debuts
Trending Topics: Israel-Hamas War, COP28, Mahua Moitra, the Parliament Winter Session, Chennai Floods, and the Parliament
In a scathing attack on her estranged partner and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, Moitra alleged the former “masqueraded” as a common citizen in front of the ethics committee for “malafide intentions”.
“I was not allowed to cross-examine the two private citizens. The ethics committee has hanged me. They did not orally testify the businessman (Darshan Hiranandani) and there was no evidence of any cash or any gifts anywhere,” she said.
She said the parliamentarians were like “conveyor belts” who would bring people’s issues to Parliament and raise them, but the “kangaroo court punished me without any evidence”.
“If this Modi government thought that by shutting me up they could do away with the Adani issue, let me tell you that 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 Adani is to you. And to what length will you go to harass a single woman MP into shutting her into submission,” she asserted.
She claimed that CBI would be sent to her house tomorrow “for sure” and said she would be harassed for the next six months.
“But what about Rs 13,000 crore-coal scam of Adani that the CBI and the ED have not found a place to look at? You tell me I have compromised national security with a login portal,” Moitra further said.
OPPOSITION SLAMS EXPULSION
The Opposition hit out at the ethics panel and the Centre over Moitra’s expulsion from Parliament, alleging it was a classic example of “democracy being murdered”.
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said she was shocked by Moitra’s expulsion as a Lok Sabha MP and accused the Centre of destroying constitutional rights.
