'Personal & Unethical Questions': Mahua Moitra Walks Out of Ethics Panel Hearing

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and other Opposition members of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee walked out of the hearing held in relation to the 'cash-for-query', on Thursday, 2 November.

Details: Moitra, Congress MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Bahujan Samajwadi Party MP Danish Ali accused the panel's chairperson of asking the TMC MP personal and unethical questions, reported news agency PTI.

• "What kind of meeting was this? They are asking all kinds of filthy questions," Moitra said, as quoted by NDTV.

• "They are picking on anything. Talking any rubbish," she added.

• "We found the ethics committee chairperson's questions to Moitra undignified and unethical," Congress MP and panel member N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

Letter to LS Speaker: Moitra also wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, which she uploaded to X (formerly Twitter). The MP alleged in the letter that "unethical, sordid, demeaning and prejudiced" behaviour was meted out to her during the Ethics Committee meeting.

She further added that she was subjected to proverbial "vastraharan".

"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 would urge you immediately to give me protection from being subjected to personal humiliation and malicious conduct by the aforesaid under the guise of a purported 'Ethics Committee' hearing."

Mahua Moitra in letter to Lok Sabha Speaker

My letter emailed to the Honourable @loksabhaspeaker pic.twitter.com/2wGlWTTej6

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 2, 2023

Context: Moitra was summoned to the hearing to inquire on the allegations made against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and her former friend Jai Anant Dehadrai of receiving cash and kind in return from real estate developer Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in Parliament targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and businessman Gautam Adani.

Dubey and Dehadrai had deposed before the Ethics Committee on Friday, 27 October, submitting "evidence" against the Krishnanagar MP.