 "Mahua Moitra expelled from Lok Sabha on recommendations of ethics panel")
Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra was on Friday expelled from the Lok Sabha on the recommendation of the Ethics Panel in the "cash-for-query" case. The panel recommendation for expelling Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of doing "vendetta politics".
The members of the Opposition walked out of Lok Sabha as the voting on expulsion of Mahua was underway. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi had on Friday moved a motion in Lok Sabha for discussion on the panel report.
"If some strict decisions have to be taken, they have to be taken to uphold the dignity of the House," Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said during the motion. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury later said that Mahua should be given an opportunity to express her views. Birla, however, disallowed Mahua from speaking in the house. He said she got an opportunity at the panel meeting.
The report was tabled on Friday amid an uproar by opposition MPs who questioned the procedure followed by the panel and demanded a discussion on the report.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali, who is a member of the ethics panel and was among those who staged a walkout protesting the nature of questions that were asked to Moitra by panel chief Vinod Kumar Sonkar, said the report was incomplete.
"We believe the report is incomplete, because the deposition was not completed. Five MPs walked out and the report was adopted in two-and-a-half minutes. We want a discussion on this. The walkout by MPs was because they were asking filthy questions. It is there in the minutes (of the meeting)," he said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the report is an "inadequate document".
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"This report is a deeply inadequate document. It fails to meet the basic standards of any report that can come up with such a dramatic recommendation of expulsion. It has also been apparently adopted in two-and-a-half minutes without any serious discussion," Tharoor said.
"...no cross-examination of those who made the accusations and no fair chance for the person who is being expelled to be heard in her own defence. For INDIA parties this is a travesty of justice," he said.
On similar lines, Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said, "The affidavit on which it is based, the witness was not even called. His statement is golden...What he says is right, what Mahua says is wrong." "Even when she was called they were indulging in character assassination instead of asking issue-based questions. Expulsion will set a very wrong precedent that you can misuse power to throw any MP out of Parliament because they ask sharp questions," she said.
(With agency inputs)