Ethics Committee report on Mahua Moitra will push for new conduct rules for MPs

The 500-page report of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on the complaint against TMC MP Mahua Moitra is expected to be adopted at its 4pm meeting

NEW DELHI:  The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which is going to recommend the expulsion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Mahua Moitra for the remaining period of the 17th Lok Sabha, will also ask the Lok Sabha Speaker to frame a set of rules to check unruly conduct of the lawmakers, officials aware of developments said on Thursday.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra at the Parliament complex to appear before Lok Sabha Ethics Committee in connection with the complaint against her on November 2. (ANI FILE)

The 500-page draft report of the 15-member panel will be adopted on Thursday. The government is expected to move a motion to expel the first-time MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal on the first day of the monsoon session.

The panel also proposes to recommend that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali, who is a member of the ethics committee, be admonished for allegedly twisting and moulding the intent of the chairman’s questions to Moitra questions and fomenting public sentiments against the panel.

Officials said the push to formulate a set of rules for unruly conduct is also significant.

For the past many years, the top leadership in parliament have been grappling with the issue of unruly conduct despite the passage of several resolutions.

“The committee wish to appeal to the Hon’ble Speaker, who is the custodian of the House, to consider framing a new set of rules which may stand as a firewall to contain the unruly conduct/behaviour of such members of Parliament,” the committee has recommended in its draft report.

Officials, however, quickly point out that drafting such rules will take time as the 17th Lok Sabha is coming to an end in June next year.

“This issue will possibly be dealt with by the new Lok Sabha authorities after the national polls,” said a senior official.

The ethics committee will meet at 4pm on Thursday to adopt the report.

The Lok Sabha ethics committee will recommend Moitra’s expulsion on charges that she sharied her login credentials with an unauthorized person, an act that the panel found amounted to unethical conduct. The panel will also suggest that an intense institutional and legal inquiry should be conducted in a time-bound manner to look into the criminal charges in this case, said the officials quoted above.