On Friday (27th October), ‘cash for query‘-accused TMC MP Mahua Moitra said in an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai for TV news channel India Today that sharing her parliament login ID and password with businessman Darshan Hiranandani is in no way against the rules. Taking a jibe at the BJP MP Dr Nishikant Dubey, she also said ‘some little Jharkhandi pitbull can’t end me’.
Notably, Dr Nishikant Dubey has filed a complaint against Mahua Moitra and the Ethics Committee of the parliament is inquiring the ‘cash for query’ issue. The TMC MP is accused of getting favours in cash and kind from Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for asking questions targeting his business rival Gautam Adani in the parliament.
Mahua Moitra said that the allegation of taking cash has no proof
Mahua Moitra said, “Anyone can make any allegation. Darshan Hiranandani has mentioned about cash. The onus is on the complainant to prove it. The entire list of items that he seems to have given, and he says that there has also been a cash exchange. Where is the proof that he has given? Is any documentary proof provided to show that he has given? If cash is given to me, please give the date on which it was given, the denomination, the details, and the documentary proof. Darshan has made no mention of cash in his affidavit. So, here is advocate Jai Dehadrai who had an acrimonious relationship with me in the past and he is alleging that I received cash.”
The TMC MP added, “Yesterday, he was called to the committee. He was asked 14 times within the committee, ‘Do you have any documentary proof to show that any cash was given’. He was unable to provide anything. This whole thing is a farce. If he has any proof, he should bring it to the table. If Darshan Hiranandani has given cash and they are calling him a so-called approver, he should immediately say where he has given me the cash. This is completely bogus and false from beginning to end.”
Detailing about the benefits received in kind, Mahua Moitra said, “Jai Dehadrai has given a list of items with no documentary proof whatsoever. I was a banker. He mentioned about the Ferragamo shoes. I was using Ferragamo before he knew how to spell it. I gave it up to come to this country and I wear Bata chappals also. This is a badly made hit job as I said before. All they have done is pick a person from a failed relationship to make allegations and then simply put a gun to Darshan Hiranandani’s head to make him turn into an approver. If Darshan Hiranandani has given certain items to me, he should give an itemised list with documentary proofs.”
Renovation of Mahua Moitra bungalow
When asked about Darshan Hiranandani’s claim that he has paid for the renovation of Mahua Moitra’s bungalow, Moitra said, “The bungalow that I am currently sitting in now – 9B Telegraph Lane – is my government-allotted bungalow. Darshan is my close personal friend. He continues to be so and he has been one from before I was an MP. Darshan Hiranandani and his father have a very large real estate company. They are one of India’s largest builders. When I was allotted my personal bungalow, it was in a dilapidated state. It had five false ceilings and the light didn’t come in. I asked Darshan, please can you get one of your architects to let me know how we can redesign the windows, the light, and the doors to make sure light comes in and how CPWD (Central Public Works Division) can do this?”
Mahua Moitra also showed the so-called design drawings allegedly sent to her by Darshan Hiranandani’s architect. She said, “These designs were handed over to the engineers and contractors of the CPWD who did my house. This government bungalow has been renovated completely by the CPWD under the government of India. No private contractor entered this house. All that Darshan Hiranandani gave me was these architect’s drawings, as a friend. Every penny of the redesign was paid for by CPWD. No private contractor has entered it.”
Mahua Moitra confessed that Darshan Hiranandani bought lipsticks and eye-shadow for her
Mahua Moitra said, “What are the super luxury items? Why Darshan Hiranandani is not giving an itemised list with all the details? The only thing I have received from Darshan Hiranandani as a close personal friend – one scarf for my birthday present three or four years ago. When he came from Dubai, he called me and asked if I wanted anything. He is a close personal friend. There is a brand called Bobby Brown that I used. He has bought me lipstick in Bitten Peach and an eye-shadow in the colour of bark from the Dubai duty-free make-up store not once but maybe two three four five times.”
Mahua further said, “I would urge Darshan Hiranandani to come immediately and put on record anything else he has given me. The third thing he has given me is whenever I go to Bombay, which is maybe four or five times in the last five years, his car picks me up and drops me back to the airport. I have never stayed with him. I stay with my friends. His car picked me up and dropped me back to the airport. He is my friend. Tomorrow if I go to Bombay, I will expect his car to pick me up and drop me back at the airport. When India Today invites me to their studio, you send me a car to pick me up. It is the same as that. It does not mean that I speak in a certain way.”
The TMC MP gave herself a clean chit
Mahua Moitra told Rajdeep Sardesai, “Firstly, it has been proved that there was no cash transaction, so put it out of the window. It has also proved that there is not much in kind which I have mentioned. There is no cash and there is nothing in kind. Now, coming to the questions part, what is the average number of questions, how does a parliamentarian put in questions? There are two ways to put in questions. I can put in a question by hand. I can write it, sign it, and I can give it in. Since 2019, one can give them online. If at all I want to ask questions on someone else’s behalf, I can simply write it down, sign it and give it in. Nobody would be the wiser. Giving the login credentials for having someone putting questions in for you doesn’t make any sense.”
‘There are no rules for NIC login’, says Mahua Moitra
Mahua Moitra then gave a detailed account of how she works on the NIC login. She said, “From 2019 onwards, I have a remote constituency. Not only now, but from 2019, I asked Darshan. Because I need someone when the NIC login is given to you and I have shown this to you, all MPs do this. No MP puts their questions themselves. The NIC login is being made out to be some great sort of secret that can be used to access RBI’s vault or can be used to access the budget before it is placed. The NIC only helps you to get in to put in the questions. You are then sent an OTP on the mobile phone.”
Accusing other MPs of following the same practices, she said, “No MP puts in their own questions. Their PAs, their interns, their PRS fellows type in the questions and source the questions and put in the questions. Most MPs do not even know what the questions are. No MP has their login and password. all the login and passwords are with their teams. For NIC login, there are no rules.”
Mahua Moitra said, “From 2019, after I became an MP, I have given 61 questions. The national average for an MP is 191. The average for my state West Bengal is 129. I told Darshan, ‘When a question comes, please give me an assistant in your office just before every session we get’. They ask you to put in your questions. I could have typed them and put them in myself. I told him to please get me someone in your office who can type in my questions. I have the mobile number to which an OTP number comes. The charge that somebody can put in question for you is ludicrous because my mobile number is given. I am one of those people who do their homework. I read every question of mine and this is why there are only 61 questions.”
She added, “I had given my login ID and password to Darshan Hiranandani and said, whenever I get a question please get an assistant from your office to type it in and put it in. He had someone in his office to type the questions that I gave. They would call me and I would always do the questions in one go because I did not have the time, I was in the constituency. The OTP comes to my mobile phone. I would give that OTP (to them). Till today my mobile phone is the only mobile phone registered. It is not Darshan’s mobile phone. The person in his office who was typing the questions would call me and say please give me the OTP. Then I would give him the OTP. Only then would the question get submitted. So the idea that Darshan could log in using my password and ask questions is ludicrous. Every question is mine.”
Mahua Moitra’s NIC ID was accessed from Switzerland and Cambridge
Mahua Moitra said, “There are no rules on NIC logins. PD Achari, who yesterday even put in a column in The Indian Express, said because this NIC was formed in 2019, there are no rules as to who can have your login ID and password. Every single MP’s login and questions are given to large teams. You are saying that I gave it to a foreign entity. Darshan Hiranandani is my friend and he is an Indian citizen. For three years he has been logging in from Dubai.”
The ‘cash-for-query’ accused MP said, “I myself have logged in from Switzerland. My sister’s child was at Cambridge when I was on holiday I was like ‘Can you just put it in, I have this deadline for putting in the questions, so can you please type in the questions’. She has done it. If NIc’s question and answer portal is so very protected why don’t you block IP addresses from entering it? Where is the national security in putting a question in the parliament when every single question is under the RTI? Darshan Hiranandani did not meet me to ask a question in the parliament. Every question is under RTI. Where is the quid and where is the quo?”
Mahua Moitra attacks Adani again
Confirming her stance against Gautam Adani, Mahua Moitra said, “I was gunning for Mr Adani. I am still gunning for him and this is not going to put me down. I am gunning for him today and I am going to gun for him tomorrow. I am gunning for him because he is pulling a fraud, he is pulling the largest corporate scam with the help of the BJP government on the people of this country due to which you are paying higher prices for electricity, for air tickets, for ports and for everything.”
TMC is behind me: Mahua Moitra
Backing her repeated rants over this issue through media and social media, Mahua Moitra said, “My party is behind me and I am fully capable of sorting this in the Ethics Committee. So far I was keeping quiet because I was abiding by the rules of the Ethics Committee. But the other thing is the court of public opinion. There are millions of people in this country who look to me as a voice to stand up against these fascist bullies and to speak out against Adani and his corruption. So, these people are thinking that they shut Mahua’s mouth. That is why it is incumbent upon me to come to the media and present my case to assure people that nothing is going to get me down.”
Personal jibes at Dr Nishikant Dubey and Jai Dehadrai
In the end, Mahua Moitra said, “Yesterday, I was laughing when one of the complainants said that it was a Dharma Yuddh. It is not a Dharma Yuddh, buddy. This is Draupadi’s Cheer Haran and now you will see the Mahabharata war. I want an FIR to be filed in the Rs 13000 Crores coal scam. This is a very badly constructed hit job.”
She added, “Jai Dehadrai does not deserve this kind of national importance to make this issue look like me versus him. He has written a fictitious complaint. There is not an iota of proof. The most important thing the BJP is trying to do is that they have got this fake complaint and they now have to get Darshan to back it up. So Darshan has to come before the committee and give an inventory and list of items that he has given me. That is what will hang me if I am guilty.”
Challenging her opponents, she said, “They have picked the wrong person to bully. Nothing will bow us down. I have entered this and I have given up everything in my life to sit here, some little Jharkhandi pitbull and some acrimonious ex personal relationship is not going to be the end of me.”
Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai’s response to Rajdeep Sardesai
Hours after this interview was aired, advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai took to social media platfor X to respond to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai who hosted this interview. Jai Anant Dehadrai wrote, “Vindicated. Thank you Rajdeep Sardesai for making it crystal-clear why my kidnapped dog Henry was being offered to me in exchange for taking back my CBI Complaint. This is what happens when ‘quid pro quo’ becomes a way of life.”
Dr Nishikant Dubey accused Mahua Moitra of influencing the approver Darshan Hiranandani
Dr Nishikant Dubey posted from his X handle, “According to the information, Darshan Hiranandani and Dubai Didi (MP) are in touch. An attempt is being made to influence the witness. Lok Sabha speaker should take action.”
Ethics Committee of the parliament is currently holding an inquiry into the entire ‘cash for query’ issue