Barely three weeks after she was voted as “Best Minister” in the Modi government, Sushma Swaraj has come under scrutiny for helping Lalit Modi procure travel documents from the UK government.
Lalit Modi is currently under an Enforcement Directorate investigation for his alleged involvement in the 2010 IPL scam. He left India for UK claiming death threats after the match fixing and illegal betting scandal broke. The UPA government had restrained the UK government from processing his travel papers.
“Yes, I Helped Lalit Modi”
On Sunday morning, the Foreign Affairs Minister openly admitted to intervening on Lalit Modi’s behalf on “humanitarian grounds”. She says Lalit Modi reached out to her in July 2014 for help as his wife who’s suffering from cancer was to undergo surgery in Portugal on August 4.
Investigation By UK Daily Names Sushma
On Twitter this morning, Sushma says she reached out to the British High Commissioner to assure the UK government that granting travel papers to Lalit Modi would not affect bilateral ties with India and that
The story was first published in UK daily The Sunday Times that claims to have access to leaked documents which indicate that 24 hours after Labour MP Keith Vaz invoked Sushma Swaraj and British High Commissioner Sir James Bevan’s name, Lalit Modi was granted his travel papers.
Keith Vaz Faces ‘Conflict of Interest’ Charge
Keith Vaz is one of Britain’s longest-serving Indian origin MPs and is facing an inquiry by UK’s Parliamentary watch dog over allegations of conflict of interest by intervening in the immigration papers of the controversial IPL founder.
According to The Sunday Times investigation, Keith Vaz personally wrote to Sarah Rapson, the director-general of UK visas and immigration to fast -track the case.
Sushma Accused Of Impropriety
The Sunday Times also claims that Vaz had offered to help Sushma Swaraj’s nephew to apply for a British law degree. To this, the Foreign Minister has stated that her nephew Jyotirmay Kaushal secured admission to the Sussex University on merit.
Finally, Amit Shah, Rajnath Back Sushma
Even as Opposition parties were demanding a clarification from the Prime Minister and a resignation from Sushma Swaraj, BJP President Amit Shah broke his silence and said there were no moral grounds for the Foreign Affairs Minister to resign.
He also dismissed any comparisons drawn to Ottavio Quattrochi (Bofors scandal) and Warren Anderson (Bhopal Gas Tragedy accused). The BJP President insisted that the matter involved assisting an Indian citizen who wanted to travel to Portugal to sign the consent papers for his wife’s cancer surgery.
Rajnath Singh was next in line to defend his cabinet colleague and said that at no point did Sushma try and influence the UK government. “She merely made a recommendation to them to act as per their country’s laws and assured them that there would be no affect on bilateral relations with India”
Congress asks “Did Modi Help Modi”?
The Congress has however, questioned the Modi government’s defence, saying there appeared to be an unravelling nexus between illegal betters, money launderers and BJP leaders. Congress demanded to know if Sushma had sought favours from Keith Vaz to get her nephew admission into a law college and why did e-mail exchanges between her husband and Vaz indicate that some kind of favours had been exchanged.
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