New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress Saturday distanced itself from its MP Mahua Moitra, whose Lok Sabha questions are under the scanner of the House Ethics Committee over their alleged connection with real estate and infrastructure company, Hiranandani Group.
Ending ambiguity over its stance on the raging controversy, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told ThePrint that “the party does not have any comment to offer on Mahua Moitra”.
“We have nothing to say on the issue. The party has no reaction to offer,” Ghosh said.
The Parliament’s House Ethics Committee is looking into allegations that Moitra, an MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar, took favours in exchange for asking questions in Parliament about billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani.
In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on 15 October, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleged that Moitra asked these questions on behalf of Dubai-based Darshan Hiranandani, chief executive officer of Hiranandani Group.
He was relying on allegations made by advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, who, in a complaint filed with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), claimed that as many as “50 questions” that Moitra has asked in the House “are related directly to the business and personal interests of Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of the group”.
Birla has referred the matter to the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which has called both Dubey and Dehadrai to depose before it on 26 October.
But it’s not just the TMC but also the larger Opposition bloc — including the Congress — that appears to be treading cautiously on the issue. On Saturday, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera was evasive when asked about the party’s position on the issue.
“Let us study the matter now. We will react thereafter,” Khera said while responding to a specific question on the controversy during a press conference at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress’s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, in response to a question during a press conference in Kolkata Friday, said that the government was not comfortable over the fact that a “particular industrialist was being questioned”. But he also added that he doesn’t know “what happened exactly in this (Mahua) case”.
“Whoever questions that industrialist becomes an anti-national. Rahul Gandhi was acted against for questioning that individual. We raise questions that concern the people in the House. If the Centre has answers, it may respond, if not, it may not. But I have never seen an Ethics Committee being formed like this,” he said.
ThePrint tried to reach Moitra for comment via calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The Krishnanagar MP has however, in her posts on social media platform X, denied the allegations and said she welcomes “answering questions to CBI and the Ethics Committee”.
“I have neither time nor interest to feed an Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls. I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia,” she posted Friday.
I welcome answering questions to CBI & Ethics Committee (which has absolute majority of BJP members) if & when they call me. I have neither time nor interest to feed a Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls.
I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia.
Shubho Sashthi .— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 20, 2023
Also Read: Lok Sabha Ethics Committee looking into Mahua Moitra case — how it was formed & what are its powers
‘Can’t fight her personal battles’
Trouble mounted for Moitra Thursday after Darshan Hiranandani submitted a written affidavit to the ethics committee claiming that he had access to Moitra’s Parliament portal user ID and password “so that I could post the questions directly on her behalf when required”.
Moitra promptly dismissed Darshan’s affidavit as a “joke”, alleging that it was scripted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
However, the allegations and counter-allegations aside, what stood out over the last few days was also the muted response of the Opposition parties on the issue. The TMC’s refusal to speak on the matter was perceived as a signal that the party wants to sit out the storm, which has become clear after Ghosh’s statement to ThePrint Saturday.
“It is not the first time that the party has found itself in a spot over actions, or statements. After the row over her comments on goddess Kali, the party had even condemned her statement. The party cannot fight her personal battles after all. If other MPs can follow the party discipline, why not her?” a senior TMC leader who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint.
In 2022, Moitra had found herself in the eye of a storm over some comments made to India Today. In that interview, she said she “has every right as an individual to imagine Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess”. The TMC had distanced itself from the remarks saying that they “are not endorsed by the party in any manner or form” and that it “strongly condemns such comments”.
RJD MP Manoj Jha — also a key functionary of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc — questioned the statement made by Darshan Hiranandani in his affidavit, but also added that “we will wait for the investigation”.
“He (Darshan) said something entirely different merely two days back that the allegations (against him) were baseless. But suddenly he had a divine sight and then he issued a long statement. We will wait for the probe,” Jha told reporters.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: ‘Are women less than cows?’ TMC’s Mahua Moitra attacks govt on delay in implementing quota Bill