Can’t appear on October 31: Mahua Moitra tells ethics panel

I represent the state of West Bengal where Durga Puja is the biggest festival, I am already committed to numerous pre-scheduled Vijaya Dashami meetings in my constituency from 30th October to 4th November and cannot be in Delhi on 31st October

Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra at Parliament House complex on August 8, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, in a letter to the Ethics Committee, has said she was unable to appear on October 31st as ordered by the committee because of prior commitments. She also urged the committee to ensure that industrialist Darshan Hiranandani is summoned to present evidence to back his claims of extending pecuniary benefits to her. Without his deposition, she said, the committee will be akin to a “kangaroo court”. 

Panel chief too eager

Ms. Moitra posted the letter on X, expressing her disappointment that the Chairman Ethics Committee and BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar had announced the summons for October 31st on live TV long before the official letter was emailed to her.

“I represent the state of West Bengal where Durga Puja is the biggest festival, I am already committed to attending numerous pre-scheduled Vijaya Dashami Sammelans/ meetings (both government and political) in my constituency from 30th October to 4th November and cannot be in Delhi on 31st October,” she wrote. She also drew a parallel to BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri who is under investigation in the Lok Sabha privileges committee for making communally derogatory remarks against BSP MP Danish Ali. Mr. Bidhuri skipped the October 10 meeting when he was asked to depose before the Privileges committee, citing pressing prior engagements, while he was on the campaign trail in Rajasthan. The same courtesy, she said, should be extended to her.

Chairman, Ethics Comm announced my 31/10 summons on live TV way before official letter emailed to me at 19:20 hrs. All complaints & suo moto affidavits also released to media. I look forward to deposing immediately after my pre- scheduled constituency programmes end on Nov 4. pic.twitter.com/ARgWeSQiHJ

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 27, 2023

 

Summon accuser also

She also pressed the committee, to call the industrialist Mr. Hiranandani who in an affidavit, to the committee turned approver in the case and claimed that Ms. Moitra gave him her Lok Sabha login ID and password. In exchange, he gave her “gifts” and helped her with air tickets, home renovations and so on.

“His affidavit, available in the public domain, is extremely scant on detail and provides no actual inventory of what he has allegedly given me. Given the seriousness of the allegations and in keeping with the principles of natural justice, it is imperative that I am allowed to exercise my right to cross-examine Shri Hiranandani. It is also imperative that he appear before the committee and provide a detailed verified list of the alleged gifts and favours he allegedly provided to me,” Ms. Moitra wrote.  

Any enquiry without the oral evidence of Mr. Hiranandani, she said will be “incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial “kangaroo court”.