ISLAMABAD
\nAn Indian member of parliament who is known to be a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is embroiled in a controversy over alleged misconduct in parliament.
\nNishikant Dubey, a BJP lawmaker, has accused Mahua Moitra – an MP from the opposition Trinamool Congress party (TMC) – of asking questions in parliament in exchange for bribes. Mr Dubey has alleged that Ms Moitra asked several questions targeting the Adani Group – a business conglomerate owned by one of Asia\u2019s richest men, Gautam Adani – in exchange for gifts and cash from a businessman, according to a report by BBC. Ms Moitra has denied the allegations, and has said that she is ready to face any kind of inquiry. A parliamentary ethics committee started hearing the case on Thursday.
\nAccording to political experts, the committee cannot punish Ms Moitra even if it rules against her her as it does not have executive powers. Its recommendation will have to go before the house, which can decide to accept or reject it. In the instance Ms Moitra is expelled from parliament, she can challenge the decision in court.
\nThe financial dealings of the Adani Group came under scrutiny in January, after Hindenburg Research – a US firm that specialises in \u201cshort-selling\u201d- published a report accusing the conglomerate of engaging in decades of \u201cbrazen\u201d stock manipulation and accounting fraud. The Adani Group has denied these allegations, calling the report \u201cmalicious\u201d.
\nSince then, Ms Moitra and several opposition lawmakers have called on the government to investigate the allegations against the Adani Group. India\u2019s market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is currently investigating the allegations against the firm.
\nOn 15 October, Mr Dubey wrote a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament highlighting information he had received from an advocate named Jai Anant Dehadrai.
\nMr Dubey claimed that Mr Dehadrai – whom Ms Moitra has described as a \u201cjilted ex\u201d – had shared \u201cirrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged\u201d between her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani with the intention of targeting the Adani Group and Mr Modi.
\nMr Adani is perceived as being close to Mr Modi and has long faced allegations from opposition politicians that he has benefited from his political ties, which Mr Adani and the BJP deny.
\nMr Dubey claimed that \u201ctill quite recently\u201d 50 of 61 questions Ms Moitra asked in the lower house of parliament were focused on the Adani Group and accused her of accepting bribes adding up to 20m rupees ($240,542; \u00a3197,700) from Mr Hiranandani.
\nMs Moitra has denied the allegations and has filed defamation cases against Mr Dubey, Mr Dehadrai and several news organisations in the Delhi high court.
\nThe Hiranandani Group had also refuted the allegations. On 20 October, it was reported that Mr Hiranandani submitted a \u201csworn affidavit\u201d to the parliament\u2019s ethics committee, changing his position and claiming that Ms Moitra had targeted Mr Adani and his enterprises to \u201cbecome famous\u201d.
\nHe also accused Ms Moitra of having shared her parliamentary login credentials with him so that he \u201ccould post questions directly on her behalf when required\u201d.
\nThe alleged affidavit was reported on by news agencies within hours but in a press release posted on X (formerly Twitter), Ms Moitra questioned the authenticity of the affidavit.
\n\u201cThe affidavit is on white paper, and not an official letterhead or notarized. Why would one of India\u2019s most respected\/educated businessmen sign a letter like this on white paper unless a gun was put on his head to do it?\u201d she wrote.
\n\u201cDarshan Hiranandani has not been summoned by the CBI (India\u2019s top investigation agency) or the Ethics Committee or indeed by any investigative agency yet. Who then has he given this affidavit to,\u201d she added.
\nA day after Mr Dubey made the allegations, a spokesperson for the Adani Group claimed that Mr Dehadrai\u2019s complaint \u201creveals that this arrangement to besmirch the reputation and interests of the Adani Group and its Chairman Gautam Adani has been in place since 2018\u201d.
\nThe TMC has not taken a definitive stand on the issue. The party\u2019s lawmaker Derek O\u2019Brien said that the TMC\u2019s leadership would wait for the report by the ethics panel before taking an \u201cappropriate decision\u201d.
\nThe controversy has made national headlines because Ms Moitra is seen as an important political figure who has managed to strike a chord with both urban and rural voters in the eastern state of West Bengal.
\nHer supporters say the controversy is a ploy by the BJP to target Mr Moitra\u2019s popularity among voters in the run-up to the general elections in 2024.
\nBut federal minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has insisted that the allegations against Ms Moitra are of \u201cgrave importance\u201d.
\nMs Moitra was a banker before she joined the TMC in 2010. Her early political career was confined to the state, where she worked with voters from the grassroots.
\nShe fought a parliamentary election in 2019 from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal where she had to prove her mettle by representing hundreds of thousands of voters who fell below the poverty line – a benchmark to assess living conditions of an individual or a family.
\nMs Moitra won the elections by a majority of 60,000 votes.
\nIn her maiden speech in parliament, Ms Moitra argued that India had been witnessing \u201csigns of fascism\u201d under the BJP government. The speech went viral on social media and was met with mixed reactions, with supporters hailing her for her honesty while critics accused her of inciting fear.
\nMs Moitra has since become a visible face of the TMC – a party which already has Mamata Banerjee, a strong woman leader at the helm.
\nMs Banerjee, a fiery speaker whose party has joined an opposition alliance aiming to take on Mr Modi\u2019s BJP in next year\u2019s election, had in 2021 publicly scolded Ms Moitra for infighting within the party. Political observers are now closely watching for Ms Banerjee\u2019s reaction to the ongoing controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD An Indian member of parliament who is known to be a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is embroiled in a controversy over alleged misconduct in parliament. Nishikant Dubey, a BJP lawmaker, has accused Mahua Moitra – an MP from the opposition Trinamool Congress party (TMC) – of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-364733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n