Lalit Modi row: BJP backs Sushma, holds off on support to Raje

Speaking to CNBC, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said actions of Swaraj is not a set back for his party and that the Foreign Minister did nothing wrong.

However, reports said that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is also facing resignation over her ties with Lalit Modi, is not receiving similar support.

Speaking to NDTV, BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra said there was "no gag order" but Raje needed to clarify. "Obviously, she knows how to handle these things. So let her clarify. Once we have the facts, we will speak on it," Mitra said.

Reports said BJP chief Amit Shah has asked Raje to not speak to reporters over the issue.

At the centre of a raging controversy involving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwigs who reportedly helped him travel in Europe, Modi had earlier said he was taken to task by the former UPA government for no reason though even some ministers of that government had helped him, a claim that was denied by the leaders he named.

While in a twist to the row over Lalit Modi, it is reported that besides External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister  Vasundhara Raje had helped former the Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner's  application for immigration to the UK in 2011 too, from his present holiday destination Montenegro,  Modi  in an interview to India Today TV channel on Tuesday said that Raje had accompanied his wife to Portugal for her cancer treatment two years ago. 

"Raje and Sushma supported me when my wife was sick," he told the channel.  "My wife was being taken to Portugal by whom? By Mrs Vasundhara Raje. Nobody knows that, I am putting that on record now,"  Modi had said, adding she accompanied his wife Minal in 2012 and 2013.

On Sushma Swaraj, he had said, "It was a family, a legal whatever you may call it. We were very close. But the point is not that...I am very close to a lot of politicians, not only Mrs Swaraj."

He had said he also got the assistance of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel and Congress leader Rajiv Shukla.

According to NDTV, while Shukla said he had not talked to  Modi for three years, Pawar said he tried to convince Modi to return to India and face investigations.
  
Modi had said: "At the end I have done nothing wrong. I've gone by book. I have been over-criticised, have been taken to task by the (UPA) government for no reason for all."

He had said he was "not perfectly cool" about External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj possibly losing her job because of helping her.

Earlier reports said besides Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje also helped Modi and the move was made by the CM on condition of strict secrecy.

"Documents released by his public relations team show that Ms Raje had supported Lalit Modi's application for immigration to the UK in 2011, when she was opposition leader, but on condition of strict secrecy," NDTV reported.

"This witness statement is provided on the strict understanding that its contents and the identity of its maker are treated confidentially and that it is used only for the purposes stated in it," NDTV reported quoting the three-page document dated 18 August 2011, purported to be Raje's witness statement.

The document said: "I make this statement in support of any immigration application that Lalit Modi makes, but do so on the strict condition that my assistance will not become known to the Indian authorities."

The news channel, however, said it could not independently verify the document.

Raje has not given her reaction on the issue so far.

All opposition parties have mounted up pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central  government to sack Sushma Swaraj if she does not resign herself after the External Affairs Minister has been caught up in a huge controversy over helping helping Lalit Modi, who is accused of financial irregularities in the game, procure travel documents in the UK last year.

The External Affairs Minister on Sunday defended herself and said she helped convey his request to the British envoy 'taking a humanitarian view.'

Lalit Modi has been in the UK since 2010 when the IPL courted controversy over an alleged betting scandal.

Lalit Modi's passport was revoked in March that year.

However, Lalit Modi was given a visa after Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz recommended his name.

According to the British media, Vaz said Swaraj had pressurised UK's top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Lalit Modi.