December 15, 2024 00:30 (IST)
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Lalit Modi row: Sushma's conduct raises several questions, says Chidambaram
New Delhi, June 17 (IBNS): Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the conduct of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in facilitating travel papers for former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi raises several questions.
Addressing a press conference, he said: "The conduct of Sushma Swaraj in facilitating travel papers for Lalit Modi raises several questions. Why is the government, despite repeated demands, not releasing letters exchanged with the UK Chancellor of Exchequer?"
He also asked why the External Affairs Minister feel Lalit Modi, who is an Indian citizen, should have a UK travel document and not and Indian travel document?
Hitting back at Lalit Modi, Chidamabar asked, "If the UPA is hounding him, why does Arun Jaitley confirm that in 15 of 16 case, he has been given show cause notices? Is the NDA also hounding him?"
He said government of India should make the file noting public.
"Who took the decision to issue a fresh passport to Lalit Modi?," asked the Congress leader.
Mocking at Lalit Modi's charge that he is a "political victim", Chidambaram said it is "laughable."
Said he: "Facts that have been disclosed so far point to nepotism, abuse of authority and flouting rules. The point is there was a look-out notice, more than one show cause notice and the passport was cancelled. How does this gentleman still remain in the UK?"
At the centre of a raging controversy involving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwigs who reportedly helped him travel in Europe, former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi 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 said, adding she accompanied his wife Minal in 2012 and 2013.
On Sushma Swaraj, he 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 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 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 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.
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