"Sad day": Nishikant Dubey on expulsion of Mahua Moitra from Lok Sabha in cash for query case

Deoghar (Jharkhand) [India], December 9 (ANI): Avoiding commenting on the expulsion of Mahua Moitra from the 17th Lok Sabha in cash for the query case, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who was one of the complainants in the matter, termed the suspension of the TMC leader a 'sad day'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha MP said that the expulsion of a Member of Parliament for corruption and national security gives him pain as a lawmaker.
Moitra, facing cash for query allegations, was expelled from the Lok Sabha on Friday after the Parliament adopted the report of its Ethics Committee, which was probing the matter. The motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi was passed by a voice vote after a heated debate between the opposition and Treasury benches.
Speaking to ANI, Nishikant Dubey said that he doesn't want to make any comment on the matter.
When asked if he was happy after the action, the BJP MP said, "What is the happiness in this? The expulsion of a parliamentarian for corruption and on the issue of national security gives me pain. Yesterday, it was not a happy day, but a sad day."
Notably, the expelled MP was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha during the debate on Friday as Speaker Om Birla cited past rulings --of his predecessor Somnath Chatterjee's-- in the 2005 cash-for-query matter when the House expelled 11 MPs for accepting bribes to as questions.
Soon after her expulsion, Moitra read her statement on Parliament premises and said, "This Lok Sabha has also seen the weaponisation of the Parliamentary committee. Ironically the Ethics Committee which 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' (crush) us into submission."
"This committee and this report have broken every rule in the book. In essence, you are finding me guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist," Moitra said, adding that the committee is punishing her for engaging in a practice that is routine, accepted and encouraged in the House," she said on Friday.
Moitra further alleged that the findings are solely based on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms and her right to cross-examine them was snatched.
"None of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner, who with malafide intention, masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee. The two testimonies have been used to hang me there at polar opposites to each other," she said.'
The opposition MPs immediately staged a walkout after the Lok Sabha adopted the motion to expel Mahua Moitra as a TMC Member of Parliament.
Moitra said that the Ethics Committee, without getting to the root of the investigation, decided to hang her.
"It refuses to summon the businessman over the testify and there is no evidence of any cash or any gifts anywhere," she said.
"You tell me that I have compromised national security with a login portal. Adani is buying all our ports, airports...Ramesh Bidhuri stands up in Parliament and says to Danish Ali, who is one of 26 Muslim MPs in the country of 200 million Muslims. The BJP has 303 MPs and has not sent one Muslim MP to Parliament. No action has been taken (against Ramesh Bidhuri). You hate minorities, you hate women, you detest Nari Shakti, and you cannot handle power and authority," she said, adding that she is 49 years old and will continue to fight the BJP for the next 30 years inside or outside Parliament. (ANI)