BJP MP Nishikant Dubey slams Mahua Moitra over Vinod Sonkar charge, says 'no power can...'
Mahua Moitra and the Opposition MPs on the panel walked out of the meeting on the cash-for-query scandal.
New Delhi: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey slammed TMC MP Mahua Moitra after the latter stormed out of a meeting of the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha on Thursday, saying what happened today was the “darkest” chapter of parliamentary history and “no power in the world” can save the Trinamool politician.
Moitra and the Opposition MPs on the panel walked out of the meeting on the cash-for-query scandal, claiming the ruling party's members asked “unethical and personal questions” to her. BJP MP Vinod Sonkar, the chairperson of the committee, later claimed Moitra used unparliamentary words for him and the panel before storming out.
Nishikant Dubey claimed the Opposition wasn't able to digest the fact that a person from a Scheduled Caste had become the chairperson of the crucial panel.
"No power in the world can save Mahua Moitra. As a parliamentarian, we are sad that we are part of a Parliament where people take money to ask questions," he said.
Dubey, citing ‘evidence’ furnished by her former friend Jai Anant Dehadrai, had lodged a complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that the TMC MP allowed businessman Darshan Hiranandani to post questions on her parliamentary portal account in lieu of expensive gifts. Birla later referred the complaint to the panel.
"I and Dehadrai went there as witnesses (on October 26) and Mahua Moitra went as an accused. However, she gave interviews and quoted what happened inside the committee of ethics. She tried to set a wrong narrative in the public. What happened today is the darkest day of parliamentary history," he said.
"She (Mahua Moitra) tried to present a misleading narrative to the public...They are unable to digest that a person from Scheduled Caste, Vinod Sonkar, has become the Chairman of the Ethics Committee and they are making unnecessary statements against him," he added.
Earlier today, Sonkar said Mahua Moitra had stormed out because she didn't want to face questions on the allegations of Hiranandani.
"The committee's motive was to probe into the allegations of unethical conduct by Mahua Moitra. Instead of cooperating, Mahua Moitra, in a fit of anger, used bad words against the panel and its chairperson. The Opposition MPs, including Danish Ali, Girdhari Yadav etc, unethically and in great anger, levelled some allegations against the committee... They walked out of the panel's meeting to escape answering questions on Darshan Hiranandani's allegations," Vinod Sonkar told reporters in Hindi.
Moitra told the panel today she had violated no parliamentary rules by sharing her login credentials with the businessman. She also said that Dehadrai had lodged a complaint against her because she ended a personal relationship with him.
In a recent interview, Moitra claimed she had asked Hiranandani to have her staff type out her questions on the portal. She said she would receive OTPs on her phone before questions were posted on the portal, which meant they had her approval.
In a recent letter, she had asked the panel to cross-examine both Dehadrai and Hiranandani. She also asked the committee to have Hiranandani share the list of gifts she had allegedly received from him.
