Q. You are probably going before Parliament’s Ethics Committee in less than a week’s time, does that make you nervous?

Not at all, why would I be? In the interest of natural justice, I should have been called first, right after this complaint. But the important thing here is that this matter should not even have reached the Ethics Committee. I have in front of me the introductory guide to the Ethics Committee which says clearly that it is incumbent upon the complainant to ensure that it is not false or frivolous or vexatious and is made in good faith. The person who has made the complaint is not a member of the Lok Sabha, he is an ex-partner of mine who has a history of an acrimonious relationship with me, who has leaked morphed photos of me online, who is engaged in a very public battle over the custody of a pet. These are all very personal issues. The Ethics Committee of the greatest democracy on Earth is certainly not the forum to decide how relationships should begin and end and how the custody battle over a canine should go ahead.

Q. But the charges against you are serious. Is it not a serious breach of parliamentary privilege that you give away your login credentials to a businessman friend of yours? Is there not impropriety in accepting expensive gifts, accepting cash, getting your official house renovated at someone else’s cost...

The issue with the BJP is that when they get after someone, they create what is called a mahaul, an atmosphere, through a media trial and things like that, and then they set you up.

I will demolish each charge. The first question is of cash. I have been an MLA before and I have an impeccable record as a public servant. You have a motivated ex-partner writing on a plain piece of paper which Nishikant Dubey forwards exclaiming I accepted two crores in cash and another 75 lakhs for an election. When a complaint of this nature is made, there absolutely has to be some documentary evidence. Where did cash come from, where was it given? If you take the so-called affidavit of Darshan Hiranandani, which they are using to back it up, there is no mention of cash. This ex-partner was asked for evidence on cash 14 times by the Ethics Committee and he said no 14 times, he came empty-handed. So cash goes out of the window. The second issue is of alleged expensive gifts. Is there any proof? Is there a list of who gave me what? Hiranandani, who has so-called turned approver and who remains a very good friend, should have given a list in his affidavit, so many Ferragamo shoes, so many Gucci handbags, diamond necklaces, rings, whatnot. Has he? His affidavit is completely silent on any itemised list. The only things Hiranandani has ever given me was one Hermes scarf on my birthday a few years ago. When he has travelled through Dubai he has bought me from duty-free some Bobbi Brown makeup, lipsticks or eye-shadow. As ludicrous as this may sound, this is what we have been reduced to. That the most outspoken critic of the government and Mr (Gautam) Adani is having to explain her makeup choices to national media. Then, the renovation. The Hiranandanis are one of the biggest real estate firms in India. When I was given my official house, I asked Darshan if he could ask one of his architects to say how we could get more sun and light into the house, etc. Darshan’s architects gave me drawings which I then gave to the CPWD contractors who did the renovation. No private party has entered my official bungalow and renovated it, it was all done by the CPWD. When I go to Bombay, maybe I went four of five times, Darshan’s car and driver picked me up from the airport and dropped me, that happened once in Dubai too. That is the sum total of what I have taken from Darshan.

Q. What about the login protocols you have as an MP? How and why would you let a businessman friend have it?

The login is simple. They are making it out to be some great key to nuclear secrets, which it is not. Until the first six months of 2019, we wrote our questions, signed and submitted. Even today I can do that. So whether Hiranandani or Adani or anybody paid me, nobody can tell. Then MPs were given NIC ids for the portal on which questions could be uploaded, etc. An important distinction is to be made here. As a Lok Sabha member, my email id is separate and that I have not, I repeat not, shared with anyone. The portal id, for all MPs, and I say this with emphasis, the practice is for secretarial and support staff and interns to use it to put up questions, etc. All MPs do this, the login is shared, it is not some great secret that will open some threat to national security. During the training of assistants and LAMP fellows that MPs get, this login is shared. This does not give you access to the RBI vaults. Had I been guilty of misuse and had I breached some state secret, they would not have taken me to the Ethics Committee, they would have invoked the NSA and put me in jail.

Q. But why did a businessman friend of yours have the login?

Listen, I work out of a remote constituency, I asked Darshan can you give me someone who can put up questions on my behalf. There is an OTP that comes each time a question is put up in your name and you have to clear it. Ninety-nine per cent of MPs do not even give their own phone numbers for these OTPs. In my case, I personally get the OTPs and clear each question.

Q. But Mr Hiranandani is not your staff or part of your office...

No, one minute. Do you think Mr Hiranandani is typing those questions himself, it is secretarial help, which I sanction with the OTPs. Please understand this. Please also understand that there are no rules framed around the use of the NIC login. I have asked my niece in England to type in questions because it is also a question of typing it in English and some of my staff are not well-versed in English. I have framed each and every question that has been asked by Mahua Moitra. The thing that can come out of this is that please frame rules around the use of NIC ids, please tell all MPs in the meantime that this is the most secret thing they have and they should keep it absolutely close to their chests. Currently, there are no rules, and there is absolutely no impropriety, no illegality. If there is, show me the rule.

Q. You keep calling this a hit job, how do you justify the use of that term, how does someone raising a question about the demeanour of Mahua Moitra become a hit job?

Right. Where does hit job come from? It comes from the Chicago mafia. It is when someone has decided to frame you, honey-trap you, wire-tap you. I am telling you on record, for two years Mr Adani has used two Lok Sabha MPs, and I can’t name them, to approach me to sit across the table from him and “sort this out”. I have refused to meet him. Last week, after this broke, I got a phone call: please sit down, sort it out, just keep quiet for six months, until the elections, everything will be fine. I refused. The issue is this is not cash for question, this is cash for no questions.

Q. Is there an offer of cash to you?

No, no, I have refused to meet the guy, but why would he want to meet me? They want to shut me up and I refuse to shut up, that’s the issue. Let me give some context here. We are running, under Abhishek Banerjee, a huge and very successful NREGA aandolan, it has caught the attention of everyone. What do they do? They pick on one outspoken leader involved in the aandolan. They amplify some petty fight over a dog and my ex-partner and the entire country is talking about that. What happens to our NREGA aandolan? There is a Rs 13,000 crore Adani coal scam which FT has broken. I am going to take it up. So this is what is a hit job. And what do you mean by my demeanour? My ex-partner is releasing morphed photos of me posing with a cigar at my birthday party and that is how the mahaul for what followed was created. This is about how do we get Mahua Moitra. Mahua is honest, she is outspoken, she cannot be stopped, she lives her life without hypocrisy, so the only way to get her is this petty thing. The only crime I confess to is making terrible choices in my personal life. That is the only crime I can be accused of and I plead guilty to that, you can quote me on this. So this acrimonious ex-partner goes to (Nishikant) Dubey because he knows Dubey and I have a history of public feuds, and Dubey takes it up. Nobody else in the BJP is taking this up by the way, no Rajnath, no Gadkari, nobody. They have told Dubey this is your own baby, run with it. If you can get her down, very good, otherwise too bad.

Q. What’s the history between you and Dubey? Why this spat?

Dubey is amongst the most abusive. He is a corrupt professional heckler, he is sucking up to (Narendra) Modi. I have filed a breach of privilege against him, he does not have a master’s how can he have a PhD? I consistently followed that up. He is a hit man but I don’t get hit. It is unfortunate that in politics you have to even meet people like this. In my past life, I would have spent my entire time without having to meet someone like Dubey. Unfortunately, that is the way it is. So these two, my ex and Dubey, go to the Ethics Committee and then begins a media trial. The Modi channels start flashing these expensive bags and shoes and diamond necklaces... I would die before I would wear such necklaces. If you see my 2016 affidavit, I have declared on it a Rs 70 lakh diamond ring, which my ex-husband gave me. Let’s be clear, I am not a rags-to-riches story. So all they can do is these dirty tricks to snare me and slander me. They want to shut me up, but they won’t succeed.

Q. Why would you not take Adani’s call? I just want to understand this. And what do you reckon he may want to tell you?

I won’t take his call because I don’t want to sell out like the rest. He is pulling the biggest con job on this country and the people with the help of this government and I will continue to speak about it. This is a calling for me, not a job or something. I have nothing to sort out with Adani. My answer to the Lok Sabha MP was, whatever Adani needs to say, let him say publicly and to his shareholders, he doesn’t do side deals with me, that’s settled. I have nothing to sort out, there is nothing I have to talk to Mr Adani about. And if he thinks he has got me to shut up, he has another thing coming, he has really got another thing coming.

Q. There is a widespread perception that your party, and Mamata Banerjee, are not backing you on this one. Is that correct?

This is another thing that the BJP loves to spread. They have written my political obituary several times in the last five years. They don’t even understand my relationship with Mamata Banerjee. Short of giving birth to me, she is my mother. Let that be understood. Also, please look at it from Mamata Banerjee’s side. She is the chief minister of a big state. She is up against so many things, the ED is coming after the Opposition, we are fighting the big fight on NREGA. In the middle of all this, what is she supposed to say? That no, Mahua doesn’t own 35 pairs of shoes? This is so trivial and petty. Mamata Banerjee has full faith in me to come out of this, and I will.

Q. Do you fear being expelled from Parliament?

Look, this is the BJP, they can do anything, anything. But the Ethics Committee has no powers to do that. And how can it? And let Darshan come and depose too, he must be called. And then all this about gifts and rest will become clear, because if he has not given me shoes and bags, he won’t be able to prove it. He has never given me cash, he can’t manufacture proof. Poor chap, he is a businessman, they put a gun to his head and said sign this affidavit. Please understand he also has businesses
in many BJP-ruled states.