Opposition slams BJP over Mahua Moitra expulsion

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was among a plethora of opposition leaders who attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Lok Sabha expelled Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.

While at Kurseong on Friday, Mamata Banerjee declared that her party was supporting Mahua Moitra, the expelled member of Parliament, and accused the BJP of engaging in politics of vendetta.

“I was sad to see the attitude of the BJP. I do not understand how they function, today a 495-page report was submitted in the Parliament and immediately they passed it, they gave just few minutes for MPs to speak. In the name of their majority they have passed this judgement without giving enough time to anyone to even read the report” Mamata Banerjee said.

“How were members expected to go through a 495-page report in such a short notice. I was happy to see the united INDIA alliance walk out and fight back. The party fully supports Mahua Moitra, she is a woman and a young MP. Today the BJP has betrayed democracy and democratic rights. They did not allow Mahua to explain her own stand. Without justice, you have done injustice. This is a betrayal of constitutional rights” the TMC chief added.

The West Bengal Chief Minister said that this incident was a demonstration of BJP’s vindictive politics.

“We can also expel anyone from the house, we have 2/3rd majority (in West Bengal Assembly), but is it right? Everyone must get their voice to defend themselves. I condem it and the party will fight with the INDIA alliance. This incident has opened our eyes to the vindictive politics of the BJP. I thought the PM would consider it and allow her to speak. I am shocked and it is a sad day for the Indian parliament” Mamata Banerjee said.

The Trinamool Congress chief said her party would back Mahua Moitra and that her party would fight this battle in the court of the people now.

“Only one session of Parliament was left after this. Now Mahua can attend the Public’s Parliament and this will boost her image she should fight this morally. We all will fight this. People will give us justice in the next election. Shame on BJP” Mamata Banerjee said.

Mahua Moitra, a Trinamool MP, was earlier ejected from the Lok Sabha following a debate on the Ethics Committee’s findings in the “cash for query” that was presented to the Lower House today.

Mahua Moitra, the leader of the Trinamool Party, was not permitted to speak during the House discussion. She read aloud her remark outside the Lok Sabha, claiming that the Ethics committee had broken every regulation. Following the Lok Sabha’s adoption of the motion to remove the TMC MP, the opposition staged a walkout. After that, the House was adjourned until December 11.

Mahua defended herself by accusing the BJP of using the Ethics committee as a tool to target opposition figures.

“This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponization of a Parliamentary Committee. Ironically, the ethics committee was set up to serve as a moral compass for members. Instead, it has been abused egregiously today to do exactly what it was never meant to do. Which is to bulldoze the opposition and become another weapon to ‘Thok Do’ us into submission…The findings are based solely on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms none of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner who with malified intention masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee. The two testimonies have been used to hang me, they are polar opposites to each other…,” says Mahua Moitra after her expulsion as TMC MP.

UBT Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the decision to expel Mahua was against the course of natural justice,” Decision was taken based on the statement of the person who levelled the allegation. It is against the natural course of justice.”

BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi who was also part of the Ethics Committee defended the decision saying MPs need to adhere to high principles.

” This is a lesson to all MPs, when we become MPs, we take an oath, we’re supposed to follow certain rules…the whole country is watching us…In Mahua Moitra’s case, immorality was visible…this is the reason why she was expelled from Lok Sabha…” Aparajita Sarangi said.

The Ethics Committee report probing ‘Unethical Conduct’ of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP had recommended that Moitra “may be expelled” from the Lok Sabha and called for an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the central government in a “time-bound manner”. “The serious misdemeanours on the part of Mahua Moitra calls for severe punishment. The Committee, therefore, recommend that Mahua Moitra, MP may be expelled from the Membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha,” the report read.

The report was adopted by a 6:4 majority by the Ethics panel last month. The report on Moitra’s cash-for-questions case revealed that she had visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times. Six members of the panel voted in favour of the report, including suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur.

Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissent notes. The opposition members termed the report a “fixed match” and said the complaint which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a “shred of evidence”.

(With agency inputs)