Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday said he was not aware of what exactly happened.
In the Mahua Moitra case but the government is distressed because the name of an industrialist has come up. Whoever speaks against the industrialist — whom the government is keen to protect — might become the country’s enemy, Adhir said citing the example of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification.
“When Rahul Gandhi too raised a question about that specific industrialist, action was taken against him,” Adhir said. The Congress leader’s statement comes as Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra has been accused of taking cash, gifts in exchange of questions against Adani that allegedly came straight from businessman Darshan Hiranandani. In an affidavit, the Dubai-based businessman claimed he used Mahua Moitra’s Parliament login to post questions.
Mahua Moitra’s party Trinamool Congress has not issued any official statement on the row while party general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the party will not react on the issue.
“When we go to Parliament, we go as people’s representatives. We raise people’s questions — wherever we get these questions from. If the government has any answer, it gives. Otherwise, it does not. But I have never seen such promptness in forming an Ethics Committee and starting an investigation,” Adhir said.
“I don’t know exactly what happened. But in general, what I can say is that every MP has the right to speak in Parliament. And the ruling party wants to throttle everyone inside and outside Parliament. Based on this, I feel the issue is rai ka pahaad (mountain out of a molehill). If anyone speaks against that industrialist, the government gets rattled. This should also be investigated. The government has all the agencies,” Adhir said.
Darshan Hiranandani, in an affidavit, admitted to having used Mahua Moitra’s Parliament login to ask questions Adani. Mahua Moitra made “frequent demands” including “expensive luxury items, providing support on renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi, travel expenses, holidays, etc, apart from providing secretarial and logistical help for her travels within India and to different parts of the world,” the affidavit claimed.
Mahua Moitra in her statement questioned the credibility of Hiranandani’d letter and said the PMO drafted it and then forced him to sign it threatening him with total shutdown of his business. “Why would one of India’s most respected/educated businessman sign a letter like this on white paper unless a gun was put to his head to do it,” Mahua wrote.