Lok Sabha adjourned till 2 pm amid ruckus on Ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra
Dec 08, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 8 : The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm following ruckus over the report of the Ethics Committee tabled in the house recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in a "cash-for-query' matter.
This was the second adjournment in a day as the house convened for the fifth day of the Winter Session. Earlier, the House was adjourned till 12 noon.
The Trinamool Congress MPs were already raising slogans when Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar laid on the table the first Report (Hindi and English versions) of the Committee on Ethics.
The TMC MPs were sloganeering "hai, hai" "band karo, "sadan ki karyawahi band karo" (stop the proceedings of the House) to show their protest against the report of the Ethics Committee, which investigated the allegations made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, adopted its 500-page report on November 9 recommending Moitra's expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in view of her "highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct".
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.
Six members of the panel voted in favour of the report, including Congress MP Preneet Kaur who had earlier been suspended from the party. Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissent notes.
The opposition members termed the report a "fixed match" and said the complaint filed by Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a "shred of evidence".
Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel's recommendation.
The TMC has demanded that Moitra be given a chance to put forth her defence. TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay has said, "I spoke with the Speaker, and he said that this committee report along with other reports will be tabled. I said that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak."
As the TMC members continued sloganeering, the Chair announced the adjournment of the House til 2 pm.
