“Sentiment of revenge…,” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Moitra’s expulsion

New Delhi [India], December 8 (ANI): After the expulsion of Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday said that all of this is being done based on “baseless facts” and with a “sentiment of revenge.”

Trinamool MP was on Friday expelled from the Lok Sabha after a discussion on the report of the Ethics Committee in the ‘cash for query’ that was tabled in the Lower House today.

“This was done based on baseless facts and with a sentiment of revenge. This government has insulted women,” Adhir said.

Meanwhile, BSP MP Danish Ali also reacted to the expulsion and said that Moitra was not given the opportunity to speak for herself.

“I’ve put this (poster) because the committee also mentioned me in its recommendation because I want to bring her justice…She wasn’t given an opportunity,” Danish Ali said.

Mahua Moitra, who was not allowed to speak during the discussion inside the House, the Trinamool leader read out her statement outside the Lok Sabha.

She said that the Ethics Committee broke every rule.

Soon after her expulsion, she read her statement on Parliament premises and said, “This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponisation of the Parliamentary Committee. Ironically the Ethics Committee which was set up to serve as a moral compass for members, instead it has been abused egregiously today to do exactly what it was never meant to do, which is to bulldoze the opposition and become another weapon to ‘thok do’ (crush) us into submission.”

“This Committee and this report have broken every rule in the book. In essence you are finding me guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist,” Moitra said, adding that the committe is punishing her for engaging in a practice that is routine, accepted and encouraged in the House.

Moitra further alleged that the findings are solely based on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms and her right to cross examine them was snatched.

“None of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner, who with malafide intention, masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committe. The two testimonies have been used to hang me there at polar opposites to each other,” she said.

“The complainant says (that) I accepted cash in consideration for my businessman to ask questions in furtherance of his commercial interests. But the businessman’s suo motu affidavit says I pressured him into uploading questions to further my agenda. The two are at the pole of opposites,” she clarified on the issue.

The opposition staged a walkout after the Lok Sabha adopted the motion to expel the TMC MP.

The House was then adjourned till December 11.

Speaker Om Birla said, “This House accepts the conclusions of the Committee that MP Mahua Moitra’s conduct was immoral and indecent as an MP. So, it is not appropriate for her to continue as an MP…”

The Ethics Committee report probing ‘Unethical Conduct’ of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP had recommended that Moitra “may be expelled” from the Lok Sabha and called for an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the central government in a “time-bound manner”.

Mahua Moitra is facing the heat of the “cash-for-query” allegations against her. The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had recently recommended her expulsion from the Lower House.

The draft report was adopted by a 6:4 majority in the panel last month. As per the sources, the draft report on Moitra’s cash-for-questions case reveals that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.