New Delhi: BSP MP Danish Ali on Saturday claimed that the report of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee in the “cash-for-query” allegation against Mahua Moitra had a full paragraph that purportedly refers to his conduct during the panel’s meetings and urged Speaker Om Birla to get it deleted before its tabling in the House.
The report of the Ethics Committee recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Moitra will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In a letter to Birla, Ali, who is a member of the ethics panel, cited rules to state that the chairman of the committee is not empowered to mention in a committee report about any individual member or his conduct or the opinion expressed by the member or members in the committee meeting.
“I have noticed that the recent report by the ethics committee named ‘cash-for-query’ contains some shocking and completely unwarranted facts about me. I would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that there is a full paragraph in the report which is purportedly referring to my conduct during the meetings…,” the BSP MP said in his letter to Birla.
“As a matter of fact and in law that it is completely beyond the jurisdiction of the hon’ble chairman of the committee to have inserted that offending paragraph,” he said and demanded that the paragraph about him must be deleted before the report is presented in the House.
Posting his letter to Birla on X, Ali said. “Lok Sabha Ethics panel, while examining cash-for-query allegations, has gone beyond its remit to comment on my objections during meeting. It seems by targeting me a message is being sent that no member should speak out against ruling party. This amounts to throttling opposition voice.” According to the agenda papers circulated by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar will lay on the table of the House the panel’s first report.
The committee, at a meeting on November 9, adopted its report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the “cash-for-query” allegation.
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 BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant 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 Winter Session of Parliament begins on Monday and is scheduled to continue till December 22.
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