West Bengal polls: Lok Sabha ethics panel to probe Trinamool Congress sting video

NEW DELHI:In a move that could put the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress under political pressure ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has asked the House ethics panel to probe the controversial sting operation that involved half a dozen TMC MPs. The Speaker’s decision followed demands from the BJP, Congress and Left parties to constitute a House panel to probe the episode which they alleged was a case of bribery and corruption involving Trinamool MPs.

"Keeping in view the extreme gravity of the matter, I have in exercise of my powers under the provisions of Rule 233B of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha decided to refer the matter to the Committee on Ethics for examination, investigate and report," the Speaker said.

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She further said: "Certain acts of alleged unethical conduct on the part of some members of the House have been reported in the press and the matter was also raised by some members in the House yesterday... These allegations are very serious in nature and seek to impact upon the very credibility of parliamentarians and Parliament as an institution and therefore need to be examined."


Asimilar probe by a parliamentary committee in the Lok Sabha and an ethics committee probe in the Rajya Sabha in 2005 on the 'cash-for-query' scam led to the termination of membership of 10 Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP. Trinamool members who figure in the sting are Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmad, Suvendu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasoon Banerjee from the Lok Sabha and Mukul Roy from the RS.

During Zero Hour, Saugata Roy protested against the "unilateral decision" to refer the case to the ethics committee "without calling any of us to present our case." However, Roy also took care to register his full faith in the integrity of BJP veteran LK Advani and hoped the panel chairman would do a fair job. Trinamool’s isolation in the House on the issue was evident as the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC stuck an aggressive posture against BJP, Congress and Left. With fate of many of its MPs in the balance after the case referral to the ethics committee, observers wonder whether the Trinamool brigade has been tamed politically in the House. However, its reflexes will depend on assembly election results.