Ethics panel report on TMC MP Mahua Moitra to be tabled in Lok Sabha at 2 pm | 10-point

The Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee on Friday submitted its report in the Lok Sabha recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra over the "cash-for-query" allegation.

Trinamool Congress members and some from the Congress trooped in the Well of the House raising slogans demanding a copy of the report.

Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, “Congress party is going to oppose the motion. This is an attack on parliament. When an MP asks a question in relation to a corporate, there is a conspiracy to disqualify the lawmaker through the ethics panel”.

Mahua Moitra defamation case: Delhi High Court renotifies matter for December 11

Before arriving at the Parliament, Moitra on Friday said that now the people will see the battle of Mahabharata.

Mahua said "Mother Durga has arrived, we will see. These people who have started snatching clothes will now see the battle of Mahabharata."

Ethics Committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the panel's first report when the House re-convened at noon after an adjournment during the Question Hour. The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm now. Moitra, while leaving the Parliament said she hadn't seen the Ethics Committee report yet, and added, "Let me have my lunch and come back. Whatever has to happen, will happen after 2 pm...".

Nishikant Dubey accuses Adhir Ranjan of leaking ethics panel report on Mahua

Moitra, a first-term MP, will be disqualified from the parliament if the report of the Ethics Committee is adopted today and if the government moves a motion for her expulsion.

However, Opposition parties MP, including Moitra, will get a chance to debate on the report before any motion is moved, Lok Sabha officials said.

Here are 10 updates on Ethics Committee vs Mahua Moitra case:

• The political storm began on 15 October when Nishikant Dubey, a BJP MP, addressed a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, accusing Moitra of accepting bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of the real-estate conglomerate Hiranandani Group, in exchange for raising parliamentary questions.
• Dubey's letter stated that out of the 61 questions asked by Moitra in the Parliament, 50 were aimed at billionaire Gautam Adani and his conglomerate Adani Group.

CBI has registered preliminary enquiry against TMC MP Mahua Moitra

• The matter took a deeper turn when Hiranandani revealed to the Ethics Committee that Moitra had shared her Parliament login ID so that the businessman could “post questions on her behalf”.
• Hiranandani also said Moitra wanted to get fame and her friends advised that “the shortest route to fame is by attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

Cash-for-query: Ethics panel suggests ‘expulsion’ of Mahua Moitra from Lok Sabha

• Last month, the Ethics Committee, which investigated the allegations made by BJP MP Dubey, adopted its 500-page report on November 9 recommending Moitra's expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in view of her "highly objectionable, unethical, heinous, and criminal conduct."
• The draft report was adopted by a 6:4 majority in the panel last month.
• 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 TMC party has demanded that Moitra be given a chance to put forth her defence.
•  Congress MP Shashi Tharoor slammed the Centre regarding the report, saying that it's a 'political vendetta'. "Incredibly inadequate reported. It seems to have been adopted in two and a half minutes, according to one of the members. There has been no proper procedure followed, no attempt to cross-examine those who have made accusations, and at the same time the conclusion of such a major punishment as expulsion of a Member - to arrive that without serious consideration is truly disgraceful. Opposition, all the INDIA Alliance parties are completely convinced that this is a travesty of justice, it would set a very undesirable precedent for the future," Tharoor said.

"I don't think it has been a fair and equitable procedure...We want her to continue in the Parliament. This is a normal style of the BJP to silence voices against it, this is yet another attempt. Of course, we are opposing it," Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said.

Congress Lok Sabha Chief Whip K Suresh said, "If the report states the expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra, we will oppose it tooth and nail."