Mahua Moitra, Kamal Hassan included in House defence committee
In 2024, TMC lawmaker Mahua Moitra sought to shift out Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Nishikant Dubey-led House information technology panel
Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Mahua Moitra has been included in the parliamentary standing committee on defence, over a year after she sought to shift out Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Nishikant Dubey-led House information technology (IT) panel.
Dubey was instrumental in Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha in 2023. He wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in September 2023, based on lawyer Jay Anand Dehradai’s complaint that she allegedly accepted money and favours to ask questions in Parliament.
Moitra allegedly shared her password with outsiders. She denied the charges that she received gifts, and asked other parliamentarians if they had ever shared their passwords.
Moitra and Rajya Sabha lawmaker and actor Kamal Hassan joined the defence committee after a reshuffle of House panels.
In a post on X, Moitra on Friday said her party asked Birla shifted her from the IT panel, but he did not do so. She added that she did not attend a single meeting in the past year in protest. Moitra thanked the TMC for nominating her to the defence panel.
A Lok Sabha official said the reference to the Speaker was unnecessary and added he accepted the recommendation to shift Moitra to the defence panel. “The TMC requested that Moitra be shifted. But there were no vacancies in other panels,” said the official.
A second official said Moitra and TMC suggested her inclusion in the IT panel when the panels were being formed in 2024. “But after Dubey became the [IT panel] chairman, she wanted to leave it.”
