Mahua Moitra: The fiery Indian lawmaker involved in the "cash-for-query" row

 Mahua Moitra: The fiery Indian lawmaker involved in the "cash-for-query" row

A scandal about suspected misbehavior in parliament has engulfed an Indian Member of Parliament (MP) who is well-known for being a harsh critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mahua Moitra, a member of the opposition Trinamool Congress party (TMC), is said by BJP legislator Nishikant Dubey to have asked questions in parliament in return for bribery.

According to Mr. Dubey, in return for gifts and money from a businessman, Ms. Moitra allegedly asked many questions about the Adani Group, a conglomerate headed by one of Asia's wealthiest men, Gautam Adani.

In response to the accusations, Ms. Moitra has said that she is prepared to answer to any form of investigation. On Thursday, a parliamentary ethics committee began deliberations on the matter.

Political analysts assert that since the committee lacks administrative authority, it is unable to penalize Ms. Moitra even in the event that it decides against her. The house must consider its advice before deciding whether to adopt or reject it. If Ms. Moitra is ousted from the parliament, she has the right to file a legal appeal.

The Adani Group's financial transactions were scrutinized in January after the release of a study by Hindenburg Research, a US-based company that specializes in "short-selling." The report accused the conglomerate of participating in decades-long "brazen" stock manipulation and accounting fraud. The Adani Group has referred to the study as "malicious" and refuted these accusations.

Since then, the government has been urged to look into the claims made against the Adani Group by Ms. Moitra and a number of opposition MPs. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), India's market watchdog, is now looking into the claims made against the company.

What has taken place so far?

In a letter dated October 15, Mr. Dubey brought attention to information obtained from counsel Jai Anant Dehadrai in the lower chamber of parliament.

According to Mr. Dubey, Mr. Dehadrai—whom Ms. Moitra has referred to as a "jilted ex"—shared "irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged" involving her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani with the goal of going after Mr. Modi and the Adani Group.

Because of his perceived closeness to Mr. Modi, Mr. Adani has long been the target of accusations from opposition politicians that he has profited from his connections in politics. Both Mr. Adani and the BJP refute these claims.

50 of the 61 questions Ms. Moitra asked in the lower house of parliament, according to Mr. Dubey, were about the Adani Group. He accused her of collecting payments from Mr. Hiranandani totaling 20 million rupees ($240,542; £197,700).

In response to the accusations, Ms. Moitra filed defamation lawsuits in the Delhi High Court against Mr. Dubey, Mr. Dehadrai, and many news outlets.

The claims have also been denied by the Hiranandani Group. On October 20, it was revealed that Mr. Hiranandani had changed his mind and claimed that Ms. Moitra had singled out Mr. Adani and his businesses in an effort to "become famous" in a "sworn affidavit" presented to the ethics committee of the parliament.

Additionally, he said that Ms. Moitra had given him access to her parliamentary login credentials so that he "could post questions directly on her behalf when required".

News outlets quickly reported on the purported declaration, but Ms. Moitra questioned its veracity in a press release that was uploaded on X, previously Twitter.

"The affidavit is neither notarized or on official letterhead; it is written on white paper. She stated, "Unless a gun was placed on his head to do it, why would one of India's most respected and educated businessmen sign a letter like this on white paper?"

"To date, neither the Ethics Committee nor the CBI—India's highest investigating body—have called Darshan Hiranandani in for a meeting. "To whom has he then given this affidavit?" she inquired.

A representative for the Adani Group said that Mr. Dehadrai's complaint "reveals that this conspiracy to besmirch the image and objectives of the Adani Group and its Chairman Gautam Adani has existed in place since 2018" a day after Mr. Dubey made the accusations.

On the matter, the TMC has not made a firm decision. Derek O'Brien, a party legislator, said that the TMC's leadership will make a "appropriate decision" only after reviewing the ethics panel's findings.

Because Ms. Moitra is seen as a significant political personality in the eastern state of West Bengal who has connected with both urban and rural people, the matter has garnered national attention. Her supporters claim that the BJP is using the incident as a strategy to undermine Mr. Moitra's popularity with voters ahead of the general elections in 2024.

However, federal minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has maintained that Ms. Moitra's accusations are "gravely important."

From MP to banker

When Ms. Moitra joined the TMC in 2010, she worked as a banker. Her first political career was limited to the state, where she collaborated with grassroots citizens.

She ran for parliament in 2019 from the West Bengal seat of Krishnanagar, where she had to demonstrate her abilities by standing up for hundreds of thousands of voters who were below the poverty line, which serves as a yardstick for evaluating a person's or a family's living circumstances.

The election was won by Ms. Moitra by a margin of over 60,000 votes.

Ms. Moitra said that the BJP administration had been causing "signs of fascism" in India during her first statement in parliament. Social media users responded differently to her statement when it went viral, with some applauding her candor and others accusing her of encouraging terror.

Since then, Ms. Moitra has emerged as the party's public face; Mamata Banerjee, a formidable female leader, is already in charge.

In 2021, Ms. Banerjee, a ferocious orator whose party has formed an opposition coalition with the goal of challenging Mr. Modi's BJP in the next election, publicly chastised Ms. Moitra for internal party strife. Political watchers are now waiting anxiously to see how Ms. Banerjee responds to the current scandal.