Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra moves privilege motion against TV journalist
New Delhi, July 4 (UNI): Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Thursday moved a privilege motion against a TV journalist for charging her with plagiarism when she participated in the debate on June 25 in the Lok Sabha.
Speaker Om Birla said the matter is under his consideration.
Moitra was allowed to make her statement during Zero Hour but when she took the name of the journalist, the Speaker said no one can be named in the House.
Moitra's maiden speech on June 25 in the Lok Sabha dwelling on "seven signs of fascism" went viral last week.
Ms Moitra, however, came under attack lately as tweets went round quoting a Washington-based monthly article alleging that the parliamentarian of Mamata Banerjee-led party had lifted parts of her speech in the Lok Sabha from an article published on "12 early warning signs of fascism", which referred to the US and President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Moitra denied outright the 'plagiarism' charge.
Notably her statement got endorsement from Congress MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor who tweeted saying: "Well said Mahua Moitra! Keep fighting."
In a statement tagged in her Twitter account, Moitra said: "Plagiarism is when one does not disclose one's source. My source as mentioned categorically in my speech was the poster from the Holocaust Museum created by the political scientist Dr Laurence W Brit pointing out the 14 signs of early fascism....I found 7 signs relevant to India and spoke at length about each of them."
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