TMC MP Mahua Moitra wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday accusing Ethics Committee chairperson, BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, of misconduct during a hearing on cash-for-query allegations. She further alleged that she was subjected to the “proverbial vastraharan” and complained that the panel chief exhibited bias and questioned her maliciously, rather than addressing the matter.
Moitra said in her strongly worded letter, “I write to you in great anguish today to update you on the unethical, sordid, and prejudiced behaviour meted out to me at the hearing of the Ethics Committee by the Chairman. I have been subjected to the proverbial ‘vastraharan’ by him in the presence of all members of the Committee,”
“The committee ought to designate itself under a name other than the Ethics committee 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 5 of the 11 members present walked out and boycotted the proceedings in protest at his shameful conduct,” she said.
Moitra was summoned to appear before the committee to address cash-to-query allegations brought by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai.
In her letter, the TMC MP asked the Lok Sabha Secretariat to reveal the rules for sharing login and password for typing questions, noting that an OTP was necessary for submissions.
“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 said.
“I repeatedly protested on record that while the Chairman was welcome to ask me any question relevant to the enquiry- namely on the login and on those allegations of gifts for which evidence, or rather complete lack of it, existed he could not ask me detailed personal questions making insinuations about my dignity as a woman,” the MP added.
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Updated: 02 Nov 2023, 10:29 PM IST
