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Mahua alleges panel chief disrobing her with questions to humiliate
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 11/4/2023 6:04:25 AM
Mahua Mitra TMC MP. Photo: Twitter
NEW DELHI, Nov 03: The meeting of the Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee witnessed stormy scenes Thursday after as TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who had appeared before the panel to give oral evidence in connection with the cash-for-query allegations levelled against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, walked out with Opposition members, accusing chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar of putting “undignified questions” to her.
Hours later, she alleged that what transpired at the meeting was an “orchestrated cheer-haran (disrobing) designed to humiliate” her.
“I walked in as one of 78 woman MPs in a country of 1.4 billion people, ready to assist a Parliamentary committee on ethics on the discovery of truth based on facts and evidence to back it up. Instead, I was subjected to a vastraharan, a disrobing, a witch-hunt of the worst kind. There were sordid, indecent and personal comments such as who I speak to, how many times late at night, and if I can give my call details, why a certain friend X is dear to me, what does his wife feel about it, which hotel I stayed in the last five years and with whom, etc,” Mahua said.
“Despite being repeatedly warned by the committee members to stick to propriety and the relevant line of questioning, he (the chairman) insisted on a written text which was obviously supplied to him by an interested party. The questions were so cheap, so intrusive. so violative of the right of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution and to my dignity as a woman that I would have been doing my role as a woman MP a great disservice if I had sat there for one minute longer and subjected to this orchestrated cheer-haran designed to humiliate me,” she said.
Moitra also released a letter she wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging that she was subjected to the “proverbial vastraharan” (disrobing) by Sonkar in the presence of all members of the committee. She said the chairman “insisted on following the most sordid line of questioning… in which he asked me detailed and extremely personal questions about my life.”