Headlines
Congress drags PM, Shah into Sushma-Lalit controversy
New Delhi, June 15
The Congress on Monday dragged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP
chief Amit Shah into the controversy over travel documents given to
Lalit Modi, arguing that the prime minister must have been aware of the
help being extended to the former IPL commissioner.
"For a prime
minister, who single-handedly runs the foreign ministry with the
external affairs minister playing a second fiddle, Modi's complicity in
providing favours to a legally established offender and absconder -
Lalit Modi, is nothing but open to negative interpretation," Congress
spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference here.
"Not
only did Lalit Modi have a relationship with External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj, but also with the prime minister and BJP president Amit
Shah," he alleged.
"Incontrovertible facts, documents and details
of the 'Modi Gate Scandal' emerging since Sunday clearly reflect the
active complicity of not only Sushma Swaraj but also point towards the
BJP government aiding and abetting a fugitive of Indian law with tacit
approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.
"(Sushma)
Swaraj overruled existing government communications to a foreign
country. These communications of the previous UPA governments not only
denied travel documents to Lalit Modi but also sought his arrest to hold
him accountable to Indian law -- so that black money laundered by him
could be brought back to the country," he added.
Surjewala posed
11 questions to the government, including one on what relationship the
prime minister and the BJP president have with Lalit Modi.
"Lalit
Modi not only had a direct association as also client-counsel
relationship with Sushma Swaraj's family but also appears to have a long
standing relationship with the prime minister and the BJP president,"
he said.
"It is unprecedented that written communication
establishes a quid pro quo between the criminal in question and the
minister," the Congress spokesperson added.
The controversy over
Sushma Swaraj's help to Lalit Modi erupted after Britain's Sunday Times
reported an e-mail exchange between influential Indian-origin Labour MP
Keith Vaz and head of UK Visas and Immigration Sarah Rapson, citing the
external affairs minister, to facilitate travel documents for Lalit
Modi.
Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said she helped Lalit Modi on
"humanitarian grounds" over treatment for his cancer-afflicted wife in
Portugal.
Surjewala claimed Lalit Modi was squarely involved in a
hawala, betting, match-fixing and money laundering racket amounting to
nearly Rs.700 crore and was directly in touch with Sushma Swaraj, who
has admitted to her acquaintance with him as also of speaking to him on
the phone on a number of occasions.
"Shockingly, it is unheard of
that the foreign minister of a country calls up envoy of a foreign
nation as also the head of a foreign parliament's 'Common Home Affairs
Select Committee' to seek favour for a criminal," he said.
Earlier,
Congress leader P.L. Punia termed Sushma Swaraj's excuses "totally
bogus", and said the minister went out of her way to provide Lalit Modi
with help.
The Congress' youth wing on Monday staged a protest near Sushma Swaraj's residence in the capital.