Days after TMC leader Mahua Moitra and opposition MPs stormed out of the meeting of the Parliamentary ethics committee, the panel is said to have recommended her expulsion from the Lok Sabha. The panel is probing the cash-for-query allegations against her, and Mahua had slammed the panel chairperson’s line of questioning as “vastraharan”.
The ethics committee is slated to meet today to adopt the “recommendation” in the draft report, which will then be sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The opposition members are likely to submit “dissent notes”, disagreeing with the panel’s decision.
But even before the adoption of the panel’s draft report, the news of its move against Moitra made it to media outlets and front pages of leading news dailies.
Adani-owned NDTV was one of the first media outlets to report on the panel’s expulsion decree against Moitra. “Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra should not be allowed to continue as an MP and her membership should be terminated, the parliamentary Ethics Committee examining the cash-for-query allegations against her has recommended,” the report on NDTV said, claiming that it had “accessed” the 500-page report pointing to a breach of privilege.
Wait a minute... isn't a television news channel accessing and then publishing a draft standing committee report before it has been presented to the House or to the Chairman a breach of privilege? https://t.co/LlETF7Dkru pic.twitter.com/utdLj3fiaq
— Apar (@apar1984) November 8, 2023
Notably, at the core of the cash-for-query allegations are the questions asked by Moitra in the Parliament purportedly in the interest of Hiranandani Group, a business rival of Gautam Adani’s conglomerate. Newslaundry examined the questions that the TMC leader has asked since her election as Krishnanagar MP in 2019. Out of the 62 questions asked by Moitra, nine were related to the Adani group.
We look at what the front pages said about the panel’s recommendation.
The lead headline on The Indian Express front-page read “Ethics panel draft report recommends Moitra expulsion from LS, pulls up Ali”. The report said the ethics committee probing the cash-for-query allegations levelled against Moitra by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey “is learnt to have recommended her expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in its draft report”. The report did not cite any sources.
It said the draft report is learnt to have “also admonished BSP MP Danish Ali” for violating Lok Sabha rules dealing with “confidentiality of proceedings” of Parliamentary committees. The panel’s report reportedly mentioned the names of opposition MPs, including Ali, who had “objected to panel chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar’s line of questioning” when Moitra appeared before the panel.
Meanwhile, the opposition members are expected to submit “dissent notes”, the page 1 report said, adding that they disagreed with the recommendations of the “15-member panel in which the ruling NDA has a majority”.
The front-page headline on The Telegraph read ‘Mahua: Ready for 5 years in the trenches’. The report said the TMC MP responded in “trademark feisty fashion” to media reports that the ethics committee has “purportedly recommended her expulsion…saying the move will only spur her to fight harder”.
The report quoted an “unapologetic” Moitra as saying that she has “30 years of political life left” and if she had to “spend the next five years in the trenches fighting them, so be it”. “I will wear my expulsion as a badge of honour,” the TMC leader told The Telegraph.
The report highlighted that the ethics panel’s report was “accessed by NDTV”, owned by the Adani Group, even before it was tabled before the committee. It also added that Trinamool Congress had not yet “spoken its mind” on the cash-for-query controversy.
The Times of India’s page 1 report, titled “LS ethics panel ‘recommends’ MP Moitra’s sacking”, said the ethics panel is “learnt to have recommended that the TMC MP be disqualified from the House”. It said this decision was in the report that was “circulated to panel members on Wednesday” and was based on the allegation that Moitra had allowed a businessman to “access her Parliament login” and “ask queries on her behalf”. “Not only breaching House ethics, but also compromising national security”.
The newspaper did not cite any sources for the knowledge of the report. It also said that it had “learnt” about the recommendation against Moitra.
The page 1 report on Hindustan Times was titled ‘Report on Moitra may recommend expulsion’. It said the Lok Sabha ethics committee will recommend expulsion of Moitra for “allegedly sharing her login credentials with a businessman living outside India”. Citing anonymous officials, it said the panel found Moitra’s conduct “unethical”.
The report said the panel was also likely to suggest an “intense institutional and legal inquiry” to look into “criminal charges”, and the draft report would be adopted today in a likely “stormy” meeting. .
Newslaundry had reported on the allegations against Moitra and the defamation suit she filed soon after against politicians and media houses. Among those named in the suit is one Jai Anant Dehadrai, a former TOI columnist, current lawyer and, in Moitra’s own words, a “jilted ex”. Read all about it here.
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