Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday alleged that she was subjected to proverbial “vastraharan”, or disrobing, by the chairperson of the Ethics Committee when she was being questioned in connection with the cash-for-query case.
She accused committee chairperson Vinod Sonkar of asking her personal and unethical questions.
In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla after the meeting, Moitra said that the committee should find another name for itself as it has “no ethics and morality left”.
“Instead of asking questions pertinent to the subject, the chairman exhibited a preconceived bias by maliciously and clearly in a defamatory way questioning me, so much so that five of the 11 members present walked out and boycotted the proceedings in protest at his shameful conduct,” she alleged.
She alleged that Sonkar picked the “most sordid line of questioning” as he read from a “script” asking her “detailed and personal questions” questions. “He continued even after being warned multiple times by other members of the committee to refrain from this filthy line of questioning,” she claimed.
The case pertains to complaints by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey alleging that Moitra took bribes from businessperson Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
The ethics committee launched its investigation into the matter in October. Moitra appeared before the panel on Thursday but stormed out of the meeting along with Opposition members of the panel.
In her letter, Moitra said while some people use “abusive and vitriolic language”, Opposition members who question the government are subjected to harassment.
She was referring to statements made by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri during a debate in Parliament on the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission on September 21. Bidhuri had called Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali a “mullah terrorist”, “pimp” and “katwa”, a slur used for circumcised Muslims.
In her letter, Moitra also asked the Lok Sabha Secretariat to disclose regulations on sharing of login and password to put questions on the Parliament website. “Why were these rules never given to MPs and if they were, why is every single MP sharing this ID and login with numerous people?” she asked.
Moitra claimed that she had used the secretarial help of Hiranandani’s office to type out the questions for submission, but added that she framed the queries.
