Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra garnered unwavering support from her party supremo Mamata Banerjee and opposition parties on Friday after she was expelled from Lok Sabha over the cash-for-query allegations.
The move came after the House adopted an Ethics Committee report that found her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
Mamata slammed Moitra's expulsion as murder of democracy in the country. "It is a disgrace to parliamentary democracy. We condemn the expulsion of Mahua Moitra; the party stands firmly with her. Unable to defeat us in elections, the BJP has resorted to vendetta politics. Today marks a sad day and a betrayal of Indian parliamentary democracy," Banerjee said during a press conference.
"I fail to comprehend how members can thoroughly review 500 pages within 30 minutes. How can all speakers reach a decision? I condemn the way democracy has been undermined. Despite having a two-thirds majority in the assembly, we refrain from expelling anyone arbitrarily," the West Bengal chief minister added.
In a warning to the BJP, Mamata said, "Nevertheless, she (Moitra) will return to Parliament with a stronger mandate. The BJP believes it can act with impunity due to its overwhelming majority. They should bear in mind that a day may come when they are no longer in power."
The fresh show of support from Mamata substantiates Moitra's earlier remarks that the party and the CM stood by her. In an interview with THE WEEK, Moitra had said, “The BJP put this story out saying that, oh, Mamata Banerjee put her under the bus. There were all these stories that Mamata has done a deal with the BJP to save her nephew. But this is the usual right wing propaganda. They have written my obituary in the TMC 20 times over, right?”
Pointing out why her party and its supremo delayed its response on the issue, Moitra said, “Initially, because it was in the Ethics Committee, even I didn't talk about it for the first ten days. And then we found that the BJP wanted to run a media trial. My party didn't obviously want to be part of that media trial. And they thought 'let the Ethics Committee do something, and then we will react'. So, it was only when I realised, around October 26, that this was actually a media trial, and I am facing character assassination, that I fought back and came out myself.”
“Mamata Banerjee is not going to comment on something frivolous. So when the Ethics Committee came out, and they did this entire kangaroo court, is when the party came out and said the right process was not followed,” she added.
