The Evening Wrap: Mahua Moitra calls enquiry on cash-for-query row 'political vendetta'

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has said that she was asked questions about her travels, which hotels she had stayed in, and with whom, during a deposition to the Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee on Thursday. In an interview to The Hindu a day after she walked out of the deposition, along with Opposition members of the panel, she detailed the queries posed during her rebuttal to allegations that she took cash to ask queries in Parliament. “The chairman [BJP MP Vinod Sonkar] asked me, ‘You call ‘so and so’ a dear friend. How dear is he?’ Mentioning his wife’s name, he said, ‘And does his wife know?’ He says, ‘You can answer yes or no’,” Moitra said, quoting the proceedings in Thursday’s hearing. “So I turned around and asked him. I said, ‘Do you mean to tell me if you are asking me, are you a prostitute?’ And I said, ‘No, that there’s nothing wrong with that’,” she added. She did not name the person about whom the questions were being asked, but she did refer to Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani as her friend. Asked about sharing her login details for the Parliament online system with him, Moitra insisted that there were no specific rules prohibiting the sharing of the login and password, noting that parliamentary assistants regularly log in to the system on behalf of MPs. Moitra also asked whether a Parliamentary panel could be used to settle personal scores. One of the complainants, advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, is her ex-partner, with whom, she said, she has an “acrimonious history”. Delhi enveloped in a haze as air pollution levels peak to emergency levels A culmination of factors including smoke from stubble burning, local pollutants and unfavourable conditions for the dispersal of pollutants have led to the air quality in the National Capital entering the ‘severe plus’ category, which is the stage at which all emergency measures need to be pressed into play to improve the quality of air. As Delhi was enveloped in a haze, all primary schools were shut down till Monday and a ban on construction activity has been implemented. There is also a ban on the plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel LMVs (four-wheelers) with a fine of ₹20,000 if they are found plying on the roads. The Delhi Metro has started running 60 extra train trips across its network to encourage people to use public transport. Addressing the media after an emergency meeting was called to deal with the situation, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that measures were being implemented to ply more DTC buses and shuttle bus services across the city and urged people of Delhi to switch to public transport and travel only for essential activities. He also called upon his Union counterpart to become more active in addressing the air pollution problem, saying it’s not just the National Capital, but the entire north India that is breathing polluted air. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is blaming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the air pollution problem in Delhi, but he is not responsible for the poor air quality in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,” Rai said. The MeT department said that unfavourable weather conditions – low wind speed, non-conducive wind direction and lack of rain – are likely to persist for another two to three days due to which it is unlikely that that the situation will improve. The city’s score on the Air Quality Index rose from 351 at 10 a.m. on Thursday to 471 at 9 a.m. on Friday. However, the Central government’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) only implemented Grade III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which is a set of emergency measures taken to reduce air pollution, in Thursday evening. However, the conditions are hazardous enough to implement grade IV of GRAP, which is the final stage of the Centre’s air pollution control plan, and should ideally be activated at least three days prior to the Air Quality Index (AQI) surpassing the 450 mark in the Capital. There has been no response yet from the CAQM on why they were not able to forecast that the air quality was going to slip into the “severe plus” category. GRAP categorises actions into four stages: Stage I - ‘poor’ (AQI 201-300); Stage II - ‘very poor’ (AQI 301-400); Stage III - ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450); and Stage IV - ‘severe plus’ (AQI above 450). Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Will the new President alter Maldives’ ‘India first’ foreign policy? Maldives has elected a new President, Mohamed Muizzu from the Progressive Party of Maldives. In the elections that concluded in September, he defeated the incumbent, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party. The elections were also viewed by many as a referendum on the country’s foreign policy. While Solih was perceived as pro-India, Muizzu is seen as pro-China. One of the main election promises made by Muizzu was to end any Indian military presence on Maldivian territory. Muizzu is set to formally take office on November 17. What prompted Muizzu to build his poll campaign around opposition to Indian military presence in Maldives? Will Maldives foreign policy now take a pro-China tilt? And for India, what are the strategic implications of Solih’s exit from power? Gyanvapi case | Supreme Court declines to intervene in Allahabad CJ’s order The Supreme Court on November 3 refused to entertain an appeal filed against an order of the Allahabad Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker withdrawing petitions connected to Hindu claims over the Gyanvapi mosque premises from the High Court judge hearing them. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud declined to interfere with Chief Justice Diwaker’s order in August while observing that “certain things should remain within the realm of Chief Justice of the High Court.” The special leave petition against the order of Chief Justice Diwaker was filed by the mosque’s management, Anjuman Intazamia Masjid. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, for the mosque management, said the withdrawal of the case from the Single Judge Bench of Justice Prakash Padia was “actually an abuse of process”. Ahmadi said though it was true that the mosque management was duty-bound to argue the case before any Bench of the High Court, Justice Padia had been extensively hearing the case since 2021. The senior lawyer said the case had in fact been reserved for judgment. The apex court was however not impressed and drew Ahmadi ‘s attention to certain paragraphs in Chief Justice Diwakar’s order giving reasons for his decision to withdraw the case from the Single Judge Bench. “We should not interfere with the power of the Chief Justice,” the CJI addressed Ahmadi. In his order, Chief Justice Diwaker said the case had been withdrawn from the Single Judge Bench “in the interest of judicial propriety and judicial discipline as well as the transparency in the listing of cases”. “The non-observance of procedure in listing of the cases, passing of successive orders for reserving the judgment and again listing the cases before the learned Judge for hearing, though he no longer had jurisdiction in the matter as per the roster, under the directions received from the chamber of learned Judge, without allowing the parent section in the office to have access to the records of these cases are instances of non-observance of procedure settled for listing and hearing of cases,” the withdrawal order said. Indefinite suspension | Supreme Court asks AAP MP Raghav Chadha to tender unconditional apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson The Supreme Court on November 3 asked suspended AAP lawmaker Raghav Chadha to tender an unconditional apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar on the select committee issue, and hoped that he would take a “sympathetic” view of the matter. A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to apprise it of the developments in the matter after the Diwali vacation. The CJI said the lawmaker will have to meet the Rajya Sabha chairperson to tender an unconditional apology on the issue. The vice president, in turn, may take a sympathetic view of the entire matter and take further steps in this regard. Chadha has been under suspension since August 11 after some MPs, a majority from the ruling BJP, accused him of adding their names to a motion without their consent. The motion sought constitution of a select committee to examine the contentious Delhi Services Bill. It was alleged that the Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab had moved a motion to refer the Delhi Services Bill to the select committee. He had allegedly named some lawmakers as members of the proposed committee and it was claimed that some of the MPs had not given their consent for it. Taking note of the complaint, the chairman suspended Chadha, pending an inquiry by the Committee of Privileges. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says ‘we need to do more to protect Palestinian civilians’ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said more needs to be done to “protect Palestinian civilians” in Gaza and that, without that, there will be “no partners for peace.” Speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday, Blinken also said, “We need to substantially and immediately increase the sustainable humanitarian assistance” into Gaza. He also said it was critical to restore the path toward a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, calling it the only “guarantor” of a safe and democratic Israel and independent Palestine. He said work on that must begin “not tomorrow, not after today, but today.” Blinken urged Israel to do everything in its power to protect civilians caught in the fighting in Gaza and ensure they receive humanitarian aid, while underscoring the country’s right to defend itself. Israel, meanwhile, warned that it was on high alert for attacks on its border with Lebanon as fears grew that the conflict could widen. Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City, the focus of their campaign to crush the enclave’s ruling Hamas militants, who launched a brutal attack on Israeli communities that started the war. But ever since that October 7 assault, there have been concerns the conflict could ignite fighting on other fronts, and Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have repeatedly traded fire along the border. Tensions escalated further ahead of a speech planned for later Friday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, attacked Israeli military positions in northern Israel with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones on Thursday. The Israeli military said it retaliated with warplanes and helicopter gunships, and spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks. “We are in a high state of readiness in the north, in a very high state of alert, to respond to any event today and in coming days,” he said. Since Israel’s war with Hamas began, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on the country’s border with Lebanon but so far has done nothing to ignite an all-out war. In Brief: The Supreme Court judgment on same-sex marriage compels queer couples who wish the joys of a real family to remain in the closet and lead dishonest lives, a review petition said. The petition seeks a review of the top court’s majority judgment refusing to legalise same-sex marriage. The judgment concludes queer partners suffer from the indignity of discrimination in their everyday lives, but then turns them away with best wishes for the future, Udit Sood, a petitioner, said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 03 November 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( I was asked who I speak to at night, which hotels I stayed in and with whom in the last five years: Mahua Moitra Trinamool Congress MP [Mahua Moitra has said that she was asked questions about her travels, which hotels she had stayed in, and with whom, during a deposition to the Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee]( on Thursday. In an interview to The Hindu a day after she walked out of the deposition, along with Opposition members of the panel, she detailed the queries posed during her rebuttal to allegations that she took cash to ask queries in Parliament. “The chairman [BJP MP Vinod Sonkar] asked me, ‘You call ‘so and so’ a dear friend. How dear is he?’ Mentioning his wife’s name, he said, ‘And does his wife know?’ He says, ‘You can answer yes or no’,” Moitra said, quoting the proceedings in Thursday’s hearing. “So I turned around and asked him. I said, ‘Do you mean to tell me if you are asking me, are you a prostitute?’ And I said, ‘No, that there’s nothing wrong with that’,” she added. She did not name the person about whom the questions were being asked, but she did refer to Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani as her friend. Asked about sharing her login details for the Parliament online system with him, Moitra insisted that there were no specific rules prohibiting the sharing of the login and password, noting that parliamentary assistants regularly log in to the system on behalf of MPs. Moitra also asked whether a Parliamentary panel could be used to settle personal scores. One of the complainants, advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, is her ex-partner, with whom, she said, she has an “acrimonious history”. Delhi enveloped in a haze as air pollution levels peak to emergency levels A culmination of factors including smoke from stubble burning, local pollutants and unfavourable conditions for the dispersal of pollutants have led to the [air quality in the National Capital entering the ‘severe plus’ category]( which is the stage at which all emergency measures need to be pressed into play to improve the quality of air. As [Delhi was enveloped in a haze]( all primary schools were shut down till Monday and a ban on construction activity has been implemented. There is also a ban on the plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel LMVs (four-wheelers) with a fine of ₹20,000 if they are found plying on the roads. The Delhi Metro has started running 60 extra train trips across its network to encourage people to use public transport. Addressing the media after an emergency meeting was called to deal with the situation, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that measures were being implemented to ply more DTC buses and shuttle bus services across the city and urged people of Delhi to switch to public transport and travel only for essential activities. He also called upon his Union counterpart to become more active in addressing the air pollution problem, saying it’s not just the National Capital, but the entire north India that is breathing polluted air. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is blaming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the air pollution problem in Delhi, but he is not responsible for the poor air quality in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,” Rai said. The MeT department said that unfavourable weather conditions – low wind speed, non-conducive wind direction and lack of rain – are likely to persist for another two to three days due to which it is unlikely that that the situation will improve. The city’s score on the Air Quality Index rose from 351 at 10 a.m. on Thursday to 471 at 9 a.m. on Friday. However, the Central government’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) only implemented Grade III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which is a set of emergency measures taken to reduce air pollution, in Thursday evening. However, the conditions are hazardous enough to implement grade IV of GRAP, which is the final stage of the Centre’s air pollution control plan, and should ideally be activated at least three days prior to the Air Quality Index (AQI) surpassing the 450 mark in the Capital. There has been no response yet from the CAQM on why they were not able to forecast that the air quality was going to slip into the “severe plus” category. GRAP categorises actions into four stages: Stage I - ‘poor’ (AQI 201-300); Stage II - ‘very poor’ (AQI 301-400); Stage III - ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450); and Stage IV - ‘severe plus’ (AQI above 450). Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Will the new President alter Maldives’ ‘India first’ foreign policy? [Maldives has elected a new President, Mohamed Muizzu from the Progressive Party of Maldives](. In the elections that concluded in September, he defeated the incumbent, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party. The elections were also viewed by many as a referendum on the country’s foreign policy. While Solih was perceived as pro-India, Muizzu is seen as pro-China. One of the main election promises made by Muizzu was to end any Indian military presence on Maldivian territory. Muizzu is set to formally take office on November 17. What prompted Muizzu to build his poll campaign around opposition to Indian military presence in Maldives? Will Maldives foreign policy now take a pro-China tilt? And for India, what are the strategic implications of Solih’s exit from power? Gyanvapi case | Supreme Court declines to intervene in Allahabad CJ’s order [The Supreme Court on November 3 refused to entertain an appeal filed against an order of the Allahabad Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker withdrawing petitions connected to Hindu claims over the Gyanvapi mosque premises from the High Court judge hearing them.]( A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud declined to interfere with Chief Justice Diwaker’s order in August while observing that “certain things should remain within the realm of Chief Justice of the High Court.” The special leave petition against the order of Chief Justice Diwaker was filed by the mosque’s management, Anjuman Intazamia Masjid. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, for the mosque management, said the withdrawal of the case from the Single Judge Bench of Justice Prakash Padia was “actually an abuse of process”. Ahmadi said though it was true that the mosque management was duty-bound to argue the case before any Bench of the High Court, Justice Padia had been extensively hearing the case since 2021. The senior lawyer said the case had in fact been reserved for judgment. The apex court was however not impressed and drew Ahmadi ‘s attention to certain paragraphs in Chief Justice Diwakar’s order giving reasons for his decision to withdraw the case from the Single Judge Bench. “We should not interfere with the power of the Chief Justice,” the CJI addressed Ahmadi. In his order, Chief Justice Diwaker said the case had been withdrawn from the Single Judge Bench “in the interest of judicial propriety and judicial discipline as well as the transparency in the listing of cases”. “The non-observance of procedure in listing of the cases, passing of successive orders for reserving the judgment and again listing the cases before the learned Judge for hearing, though he no longer had jurisdiction in the matter as per the roster, under the directions received from the chamber of learned Judge, without allowing the parent section in the office to have access to the records of these cases are instances of non-observance of procedure settled for listing and hearing of cases,” the withdrawal order said. Indefinite suspension | Supreme Court asks AAP MP Raghav Chadha to tender unconditional apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson The [Supreme Court on November 3 asked suspended AAP lawmaker Raghav Chadha to tender an unconditional apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar]( on the select committee issue, and hoped that he would take a “sympathetic” view of the matter. A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to apprise it of the developments in the matter after the Diwali vacation. The CJI said the lawmaker will have to meet the Rajya Sabha chairperson to tender an unconditional apology on the issue. The vice president, in turn, may take a sympathetic view of the entire matter and take further steps in this regard. Chadha has been under suspension since August 11 after some MPs, a majority from the ruling BJP, accused him of adding their names to a motion without their consent. The motion sought constitution of a select committee to examine the contentious Delhi Services Bill. It was alleged that the Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab had moved a motion to refer the Delhi Services Bill to the select committee. He had allegedly named some lawmakers as members of the proposed committee and it was claimed that some of the MPs had not given their consent for it. Taking note of the complaint, the chairman suspended Chadha, pending an inquiry by the Committee of Privileges. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says ‘we need to do more to protect Palestinian civilians’ [U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said more needs to be done to “protect Palestinian civilians” in Gaza]( and that, without that, there will be “no partners for peace.” Speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday, Blinken also said, “We need to substantially and immediately increase the sustainable humanitarian assistance” into Gaza. He also said it was critical to restore the path toward a two-state solution to the [Israel-Palestinian conflict]( calling it the only “guarantor” of a safe and democratic Israel and independent Palestine. He said work on that must begin “not tomorrow, not after today, but today.” Blinken urged Israel to do everything in its power to protect civilians caught in the fighting in Gaza and ensure they receive humanitarian aid, while underscoring the country’s right to defend itself. Israel, meanwhile, warned that it was on high alert for attacks on its border with Lebanon as fears grew that the conflict could widen. Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City, the focus of their campaign to crush the enclave’s ruling Hamas militants, who launched a brutal attack on Israeli communities that started the war. But ever since that October 7 assault, there have been concerns the conflict could ignite fighting on other fronts, and Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have repeatedly traded fire along the border. Tensions escalated further ahead of a speech planned for later Friday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, attacked Israeli military positions in northern Israel with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones on Thursday. The Israeli military said it retaliated with warplanes and helicopter gunships, and spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks. “We are in a high state of readiness in the north, in a very high state of alert, to respond to any event today and in coming days,” he said. Since Israel’s war with Hamas began, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on the country’s border with Lebanon but so far has done nothing to ignite an all-out war. In Brief: [The Supreme Court judgment on same-sex marriage compels queer couples who wish the joys of a real family to remain in the closet and lead dishonest lives, a review petition said](. The petition seeks a review of the top court’s majority judgment refusing to legalise same-sex marriage. The judgment concludes queer partners suffer from the indignity of discrimination in their everyday lives, but then turns them away with best wishes for the future, Udit Sood, a petitioner, said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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