E-Paper
Mahua Moitra claims 'egregious breach' of Lok Sabha rules, accuses Speaker Om Birla of ‘inaction’
Mahua Moitra said she was being targeted for speaking out against the Adani Group.
New Delhi: Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging “total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha”. Referring to the media having access to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha's draft report in the cash-for-query scandal, she accused the Speaker of "inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints".
"There is clearly a total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha. Your inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints is also unfortunate," she wrote in a letter to Birla.
The media reported yesterday that the panel will recommend the expulsion of Moitra from the Lok Sabha for allegedly sharing the login credentials of Parliament's official portal with businessman Darshan Hiranandani, as it amounted to unethical conduct.
Also read: Lok Sabha ethics committee to call for Mahua Moitra’s expulsion: Officials
In the letter, she said a channel owned by the Adani Group had access to the draft report, which was a "very serious breach of Rule 275(2) contained in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha".
Also read: Mahua Moitra's 'specially bred pit bulls' attack after BJP MP's Lokpal, CBI post
"It is even more shocking because this media channel is majority owned by the Adani Group, against whom I have raised very serious issues of corporate fraud and breach of financial and securities regulations, in the Lok Sabha," she added.
Moitra said she was being targeted for speaking out against the conglomerate.
"...it is absolutely shocking how a channel owned by this group has access to a confidential Committee report which is the subject of my alleged unethical conduct," she added.
She called this an "egregious breach" of the rules.
Moitra is accused of sharing her login credentials with the businessman, who allegedly posted questions pertaining to the conglomerate of his own accord. Moitra has said she shared the credentials to have his staff type out her questions. She has also rubbished the allegation that she accepted bribes from the businessman.
Mahua Moitra appeared before the panel on November 2. She, however, stormed out minutes later, claiming the panel's chairperson, BJP leader Vinod Sonkar, had asked unethical and personal questions from her. Sonkar later claimed she had used unparliamentary language for him and the panel.
On Wednesday, referring to Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey's claim that Lokpal had recommended a CBI probe against her, Moitra said the body had been "spurred into action by specially bred pit bulls".
"Lok Pal Abhi Zinda Hai (Lokpal is still alive).. Very happy to know Modiji’s Lok Pal exists - & been spurred into action by specially bred pit bulls," she wrote in a series of posts on X.
