Cash-for-query case: Mahua Moitra should get a chance to speak in her defence, says Shashi Tharoor

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha member and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, who faces charges of taking gifts for asking questions to target the Adani group, should be given a chance to speak in her defence. The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which probed the cash-for-query case, is likely to submit its report in Parliament during the ongoing Winter Session.It was not tabled in the House today though it was listed on Monday's agenda.
"We are looking at a situation where if they are going to bring this motion to endorse the recommendation of the Ethics Committee to expel a member, they have to give the member a chance to speak in her defence, and they have to permit a discussion where others can raise serious issues," Tharoor said.
According to several media reports, the committee in its report has recommended the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in the case.
Terming this to be a matter of great concern for the whole opposition, Tharoor said, "We have a number of very fundamental questions in our mind about this. First of all, there is a peculiar business of the overlapping mandates of the Privileges Committee and the Ethics Committee. I think we have a real trouble with the way the parliamentary system is functioning."
"The last time MPs were expelled, it was a Privileges Committee. Now, the Ethics Committee is also getting into this. On what basis? Secondly, in any procedure involving something as serious as expulsion, there has to be an opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses for all sides to be heard. That has not, as far as we are aware, happened. The report has been done in a very one-sided manner," Tharoor asserted.
Mahua Moitra, meanwhle, refused to comment on the Ethics Committee report and said "she'll only speak when the report is tabled before Parliament."
"What can I say when it was not even tabled (before the Parliament)? Had they tabled it, I would have said something. I will speak when they table it... ," the TMC MP said.
'Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury leaked Ethics Committee report'
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who had lodged complaint against Mahua, alleged that Congress MP and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had leaked the Ethics Committee report on Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra before it was tabled in the House.
"Let the report be tabled. I don't know what is mentioned in the report. What I had to say, I said before the Ethics Committee. I will be able to make a comment only after the report is tabled. I don't know how was the report leaked, I think Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury leaked it..." Dubey said.
'Extremely serious punishment'
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had on Saturday written to Speaker Om Birla, saying the expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra from Parliament is an "extremely serious punishment and has very wide ramifications".
In his four-page letter to the Speaker, Chowdhury demanded a relook at the rules and processes of parliamentary committees, asserting that there is no clear demarcation in the roles envisaged for the Privileges Committee and the Ethics Committee, especially on exercising penal powers.
"If the media reports on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee on choosing to recommend expelling Mohua Moitra from Parliament are right, it would, perhaps be the first such recommendation of the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha," Chowdhury said in his letter to the Speaker.
"Expulsion from Parliament, you will agree sir, is an extremely serious punishment and has very wide ramifications," he added.
Chowdhury, who is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the views expressed by him are in his personal capacity.
(With inputs from agencies)