Keeping the focus of questions on Adani she raised that have pushed the Modi government into a corner, she says she was sent feelers to ‘keep quiet’ till the elections.

In interviews with two media outlets, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra addressed the cash-for-query allegations against her, saying that there was no quid pro quo between her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
She admitted that she had given her Parliament login ID and password to the businessman, to have someone in his office to type in the questions to be asked in the Lok Sabha. She said the process requires a One-Time Password (OTP), and that the idea of someone else, in this case, Hiranandani, logged into her account and posted questions on her behalf is ‘ludicrous’.
“When I enter Parliament, there are no NIC [National Informatics Centre] rules for Parliament. No MP does their own questions – LAMPs (Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament) do it, or interns do it,” the MP told the Indian Express.
“The question and answer password does not give you access to the vaults of the RBI or the Budget document, it is just to upload or update your question. An OTP comes to your mobile, and in 99% of the cases, MPs do not give their phone numbers for the OTP. But in my case, my phone number is given,” she said.
“When I became an MP and since I represent a remote constituency (Krishnanagar), I asked Darshan to get someone in his office to type down the question and upload it. He is my friend and I do not think there is anything wrong with it. How do you know which business group goes and gives questions to your intern or LAMP to file?… I have given him the password and login for someone in his office to type it down and upload. Since the OTP comes to me, there is no question of Darshan or anyone putting it without my knowledge.”

The ‘cash-for-query’ allegation
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey approached the Ethics Committee, alleging that the TMC leader had accepted bribes and favours in return for asking questions in the Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Hiranandani.
Moitra responded to this allegation to the Indian Express, saying: “Tell me, where is the money? The main thing to prove is the quid pro quo. Darshan is an Indian citizen, he runs some of the biggest IT firms in the country and its biggest client is the GOI (Government of India). So he cannot be ‘anti-national’. One of his secretaries typed the questions I framed… Darshan in his affidavit (to the Ethics Committee) says that he is the biggest fan of Prime Minister Modi. Where did he attack Adani?”
“The analysis given in the affidavit (by Jai Anant Dehadrai) of my questions is laughable. To my question as to the statistics regarding the quality of service provided by telecom companies, Dehadrai has written as analysis that, just a day earlier, Hiranandani had hired a former Reliance Jio executive. What rubbish is this?”
“… Adani has used the government, ED (Enforcement Directorate) and CBI to shut up competitors. I am fully within my rights to raise questions against Adani… What you need to prove is that I took cash for this. Where is the cash?… What is the secret answer I am getting on Adani that Hiranandani could not get on his own?”
She told India Today: “Now that the cash-for-query has fallen flat, this is being made out to be some great issue of national security. Mr. Dubey has gone to the press and said that it is a national security issue. The NIC login has no rules as to who can have your login.”
‘Cash may have been offered to not question,’ alleges Moitra
India Today reported Moitra as alleging: “Mr Adani has approached me via two Lok Sabha MPs in the last three years to sit across the table with him and work out a deal I have refused. The issue is, he was giving cash to not question.”
She said that she refused the deal offered to her to sit across the table with Adani and “sort it out”. She added, saying that the two (unnamed) MPs met her only to enable a meeting with Adani, “I never met him, so I don’t know what he was offering or what price he was paying.”
The Trinamool leader alleged that she was approached again last week and was asked to “keep quiet”.
“I was given the message: ‘Please end this. Please keep quiet for six months till the elections are over. Everything will be fine afterwards. Even if you want to attack Mr Adani, you can do it slightly, but just don’t take the Prime Minister’s name’,” Moitra claimed.
She said it was her job to question Adani and she would continue doing it. She alleged that there were coal scams and more and citizens were paying much higher prices for coal, fuel, tickets and airports due to irregularities, she would continue to raise.
She dismissed the allegation of Darshan Hiranandani’s clash of business interests with Adani and said there was no cash and nothing mentioned in Hiranandani’s affidavit.
Adani, after the charges were made at Opposition MP, issued a statement saying “some groups and individuals have been working overtime to harm our name, goodwill and market standing”.
The Adani Group spokesperson said on October 16, 2023, “in this particular case, a lawyer’s complaint reveals that this arrangement to besmirch the reputation and interests of the Adani Group and our chairman Gautam Adani has been in place since 2018.”

The Ethics Committee
Moitra has sought more time to appear before the Ethics Committee, saying that owing to Vijaya Dashami meetings scheduled between October 30 and November 4, she cannot be in New Delhi on October 31.
She further said that Hiranandani should also be present before the ethics panel, and provide “verified lists” of all alleged gifts and favours that the TMC MP is alleged to have received.
There was one scarf as a birthday gift she got and some personal cosmetic items, namely lipstick and eye shadow she asked for when he rang from Dubai duty-free enquiring if she wanted anything. “I asked as he was a close personal friend.”
She denied he helped in any house renovation, showing architect drawings he had passed on which she said she gave to the CPWD engineer to make some changes in her official home. No private contractor was hired, she said, waving the drawings of the architect Hiranandani sent her, on the screen.

Courtesy: The Wire