Lok Sabha Speaker asks House ethics panel to probe sting on TMC

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday ruled that the bribery charges against Trinamul Congress MPs would be probed by the House ethics committee headed by BJP leader L.K. Advani. The Speaker said the charges were very serious, and they “impact the very credibility of Parliament”.

The Speaker’s decision came after a purported sting that showed some TMC MPs accepting bribes to do favours for a fictitious Chennai-based firm. Left MPs, particularly Mohammed Salim, had heated exchanges with their TMC counterparts in the Lok Sabha after the matter was raised. Union parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu too had said the matter was serious, and cast aspersions on the prestige of Parliament. An angry TMC MP Saugata Roy protested against the Speaker’s move during Zero Hour, saying there was no formal motion before her, yet she took an unilateral decision without giving him an opportunity to explain.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s decision is reminiscent of a similar probe by a parliamentary committee in the Lok Sabha and the ethics committee probe in the Rajya Sabha in 2005 in the wake of the “cash-for-questions” scam, which led to the termination of membership of 11 MPs, that included 10 from the Lok Sabha and one from the Rajya Sabha.

Protesting against the Speaker’s decision, Trinamul MP Saugata Roy said angrily: “If it becomes a practice, then anybody will do a sting against members and an inquiry will be ordered on such unverified content.” However, he added he had full respect for and faith in Mr Advani, who he said would be fair in the probe.

“Certain acts of alleged unethical conduct on the part of some members of the House have been reported in the press and the matter was also raised by some members in the House on Tuesday. These allegations are very serious in nature and seek to impact upon the very credibility of parliamentarians and Parliament as an institution and need to be examined,” the Speaker said. There are 15 members in the ethics committee drawn from different parties, and they will now examine, investigate and report back to the Speaker on the bribery charges.

In the purported sting telecast a few days back, five TMC members from the Lok Sabha — Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmad, Suvendu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasoon Banerjee — and Mukul Roy from the Rajya Sabha were allegedly shown accepting money “officials” of a fictitious company.