The National Informatics Centre, which manages Parliament and its members’ portals among other things, will “fully cooperate” with the Lok Sabha’s ethics committee in its probe into the “cash for query” allegations against Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Mahua Moitra, Union information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.
“NIC will promptly respond to any instructions in this matter from the Lok Sabha Secretariat. NIC will also extend full cooperation to the Committee on Ethics in investigation on this matter,” the minister said in his reply to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey, who has raised the charges against Moitra. In his letter, dated October 24, Vaishnaw called the issues raised by Dubey as those of “grave importance”. “Matters related to user-access, website policy etc. are within the purview of organisations that avail services from the NIC,” he wrote.
For the Lok Sabha website, the House secretariat takes services from NIC. The secretariat reports to Speaker Om Birla. Vaishnaw’s assurance is significant as the panel might require technical support to ascertain Dubey and Moitra’s former friend and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai’s allegations that the TMC MP allowed Darshan Hiranandani to access her parliamentary account to post questions on her behalf. Dubey has also alleged that the MP’s account was logged in from Dubai, compromising security.
“Who is lying? 2 days ago Fake Degree Wala said NIC already given details including “Dubai” logins to probe agency. Now Ashwini Vaishnaw says NIC will give info in future IF asked by LS or Ethics Comm. BJP welcome to do hit job on me but Adani+Godda perhaps not best strategists!” Moitra posted on X.
In August 2022, Dubey, his two sons and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari allegedly entered the ATC room at the Deoghar airport and pressured the staff to give them clearance to fly after the permitted hours. Jharkhand police registered an FIR against nine people including Dubey, his sons, Tiwari and the airport director.
Soon after the TMC MP’s post, Dubey also took to X and posted, “chor machaye shor (thief making a noise).”
Moitra also said she had not been called by the ethics committee yet. On October 21, Moitra had said the NIC should release all the details of MPs publicly “to show they were physically present in place from where IDs were accessed by their PAs & researchers/interns/staff”.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali’s complaint is still pending before the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha. Ali had given a notice against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on September 22 after the latter had used Islamophobic slurs, defamatory language and abusive words against Ali on the Lok Sabha floor. Bidhuri, as per an Indian Express report, had appeared virtually before the Privileges Committee.
“In fact, Danish Ali has written a letter saying that when he complained about Ramesh Bidhuri, … they didn’t call the complainant Danish Ali, they just called Bidhuri to give his side of events. But in this case, even though these guys have written a long complaint, they have called them only to [appear] but they haven’t called me. It is amusing that in Danish Ali’s case the complainant was not called first and the accused was but in this case I as the accused haven’t been called to give my side of the story; the complainants have been called again,” Moitra pointed out.
Source: Hindustan Times
