Opposition members behaved unethically, boycotted meeting to detract from allegations against Mahua Moitra: LS Ethics panel head Vinod Sonkar | India News

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Ethics Committee chairman Vinod Sonkar on Thursday accused panel’s opposition members of behaving unethically and boycotting the cash for query probe meeting to detract from allegations against Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra.
“Instead of giving answers and cooperating with the probe, she (Mahua Moitra) got angry and used unparliamentary language for the chairperson, and committee members.Opposition members Danish Ali, Girdhari Yadav and Uttam Kumar Reddy also made unethical remarks against the panel and walked out to help the Trinamool MP,” Sonkar said.

On charges levelled by the panel’s opposition members that the chairperson had asked personal questions to Mahua Moitra, Sonkar said, “the only motive behind all these charges was to ensure that important questions which were relevant to the probe could not be asked to the Trinamool MP.”

BJP MP and panel member Aparajita Sarangi, however, said that Moitra behaved in an angry, rude and arrogant manner when she was asked about the affidavit submitted to the committee by businessman Darshan Hiranandani.

Earlier, Mahua Moitra and the opposition members of the panel stormed out of the meeting accusing the panel chief of asking undignified and unethical questions to the Trinamool MP.
Moitra has been accused of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
‘Mahua Moitra tried to create a wrong narrative’
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who had filed the complaint against Mahua Moitra, said that the TMC MP tried to create a wrong narrative about the proceedings of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee that is probing allegations of “gifts-for-query” against her.
Addressing a press conference here, Dubey said the committee was bound to question Moitra on the affidavit filed by businessman Darshan Hiranandani.

He also alleged that the opposition was perturbed by the fact that the panel is headed by an OBC member. “They were unable to digest the fact,” Dubey said.
The BJP leader also claimed that “no power” can save Moitra after all the evidence provided by him and others against her to the ethics committee.
(With inputs from agencies)