Did Not Request UK Government to Help Lalit Modi, Says Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi:  In Parliament today, amid loud protests from the Opposition, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tried to clarify the allegations that have led to a rancorous demand for her resignation. “I did not request the UK government to arrange travel papers for Lalit Modi,” she said, straining to be heard above the angry slogans from members of the Congress.

Ms Swaraj must resign for assisting tainted cricket magnate Lalit Modi, the Congress has said, placing her on a list of three senior BJP leaders that it says must be removed from office before it allows Parliament to function. The other two are Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, who is confronting accusations of assisting Lalit Modi after he fled India amid a series of corruption cases, and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, beleaguered by a scandal that saw bribes being paid in exchange for state jobs and college admissions.

The BJP has ruled out any resignations, but, to persuade the Congress to allow Parliament to attend to important business including reforms, it has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak on the controversies in Parliament if a debate is initiated. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi flatly rejected that offer this morning, declaring at a meeting of her law-makers, “Our stand is very clear… there is a mountain of incontrovertible evidence in the public domain for the Prime Minister to require the resignations of the External Affairs Minister and the two chief ministers.”

For days, Ms Swaraj has said she wants to make a statement in Parliament explaining what role she played in the urgent travel papers that were issued to Lalit Modi last year to travel to Portugal with his wife so she could be treated for cancer.  Earlier, the minister had said her assistance was on “humanitarian” grounds.