Lok Sabha 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 LS and one from the RS.
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.
