The parliamentary ethics committee will present its report on the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in the Lok Sabha today.

The committee will suggest parliament to expel Ms Moitra from parliament.

The Opposition is expected to ask for a division of votes on the report. The BJP has, however, prepared for this and issued a whip to its MPs to remain in the house.

Six members of the ethics committee had voted in favour of the report. Four members belonging to the Opposition gave dissent notes. The Opposition has called the report a “fixed match”. 

Ms Moitra and Opposition MPs had walked out of the ethics committee meeting on November 2 after questioning the way the meeting was conducted. The committee, however, had shot back saying she did not cooperate and left in order to avoid answering more questions.

The Trinamool Congress MP has called Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who filed the complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), her “jilted ex”. Following the complaint, Mr Dubey had led the call to investigate the allegation that Ms Moitra gave her parliament login ID to businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though Ms Moitra has refuted the cash-for-query allegations, she admitted to giving her parliamentary login ID to businessman Darshan Hiranandani.

In an affidavit, Mr Hiranandani alleged the Trinamool MP shared her MP email so that he could send her information and she could raise questions in parliament. He alleged she later gave him her parliament login and password for him to post the questions directly.

The ethics committee had reached out to the Information Technology Ministry and the Home Ministry to check alleged misuse of the parliament login ID and password by Ms Moitra.

At least 403 Indian students have died abroad since 2018 due to various reasons including natural causes and accidents, the government said today. Out of the 34 nations, the most deaths occurred in Canada.

The data was presented in the Rajya Sabha by Union Minister V Muraleedharan, who said that 403 Indian students have died abroad since 2018.

According to data submitted by the ministry, Canada has reported 91 deaths of Indian students since 2018 followed by the United Kingdom (48), Russia (40), the United States (36), Australia (35), Ukraine (21), Germany (20), Cyprus (14), Italy and the Philippines (10 each).

He also emphasised the Centre’s commitment to the safety and well-being of Indian students abroad, pledging to address individual cases and work toward preventing any untoward incidents in the future. He said that heads of mission and senior officials regularly visit colleges and universities to interact with Indian students studying there.

“The safety and security of Indian students abroad is one of the foremost priorities for the Government of India,” he said.

“In case there is any untoward incident, it is immediately taken up with the concerned authorities of the host country to ensure that the incident is properly investigated and the perpetrators are punished, he added.

The distressed students are also offered comprehensive consular assistance, including emergency medical care, boarding, and lodging when needed, he said.

When asked about the high number of deaths of Indian students, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that a high number of students were also going abroad to study.

“I don’t know if this is an issue that merits taking up with the government. There are individual incidents where there has been foul play and others… Our consulates do reach out to families, we also take it up such cases with the local authorities,” Mr Bagchi told reporters at the weekly briefing.

Former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was admitted to a hospital around 2 am today in Hyderabad after a fall at his home.

Doctors suspect the 69-year-old may have suffered a hip fracture after the fall and may require a surgery. He was rushed to the Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad at around 2 am on Friday. The former Chief Minister had been meeting people at his home for the last three days since he lost the state assembly polls.

KCR served as the Chief Minister of Telangana from 2014 till 2023 after the Congress defeated his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the recently concluded Assembly Elections.

KCR fought from two seats in Telangana and won the Gajwel seat but lost to Kamareddy. He lost the Kamareddy seat to BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy, who defeated KCR and Revanth Reddy both from the seat.

Congress’s Revanth Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Telangana yesterday along with 11 ministers.

The Congress won 64 seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly, while the BRS got only 39. This was BRS’ first defeat since the birth of Telangana in 2014.

In an extensive poll campaign, the party tried to highlight all its welfare schemes for the poor. However, the implementation of some schemes had given an inordinate amount of power to MLAs to decide on the distribution of funds, leading to allegations of discrimination as well as corruption.

KCR did warn these MLAs to buck up and improve their performance but ended up giving poll tickets to all of them. The result: most of these seats went to the Congress.