New Delhi: Opposition storms out of LS Ethics Committee meet

New Delhi : Opposition members of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday stormed out of a meeting along with Mahua Moitra, accusing the panel's chairperson of asking the TMC MP personal and unethical questions. The committee chairman and BJP MP Vinod Sonkar, who continued the deliberations even after the walkout, later counter-accused the opposition members of behaving unethically and boycotting to detract from allegations against Moitra. Talking to reporters after the meeting ended, Sonkar alleged that objectionable words were used against the committee's functioning and against him. "We found the ethics committee chairperson's questions to Moitra undignified and unethical," Congress MP and panel member N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters after the walkout.

Moitra wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that she was subjected to the "proverbial vastraharan" by the chairperson of the Ethics Committee during a hearing on the cash-for-query allegations against her.

She also alleged that the panel chairperson, BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, instead of asking questions pertinent to the matter, exhibited a preconceived bias by questioning her in a malicious and defamatory way.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleged that TMC MP Mahua Moitra tried to create a wrong narrative about the proceedings of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee that is probing allegations of "gifts-for-query" against her.