Lalit Modi Burns Minister Sushma Swaraj in India, Vaz in London

NEW DELHI: It is a potboiler, in more ways than one. Lalit Modi is back in the headlines again, and with him so is Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj who was not as visible in the media as she is again today. This is all because of a British media expose wherein local MP Keith Vaz has been charged with a visa fraud. For using influence to get travel papers for the state-less Lalit Modi whose passport was impounded by India in 2010 for alleged cricket fraud. Vaz in his defence said he had been approached by Indian Minister Swaraj on behalf of Modi. Unable to deny this assertion, the Minister rushed to tweet her responses:

“Sometime in July 2014, Lalit Modi spoke to me that his wife was suffering from Cancer and her surgery was fixed for 4th August in Portugal. He told me that he had to be present in the hospital to sign the consent papers.”

And again:

“I genuinely believe that in a situation such as this, giving emergency travel documents to an Indian citizen cannot and should not spoil relations between the two countries. I may also state that only few days later, Delhi High Court quashed the UPA Government’s order impounding Lalit Modi’s Passport on the ground that the said order was unconstitutional being violative of fundamental rights and he got his Passport back.”

Modi tweeting his delight after receiving the documents last year described Vaz as a “superstar.” The superstar Labour MP, however, is now in the midst of a raging controversy that might disable him from contesting the elections scheduled shortly as he has come under Opposition fire.

As has Swaraj back in New Delhi with all opposition parties uniting to demand her immediate resignation for aiding Lalit Modi who is facing an Enforcement Director probe into financial irregularities of betting and match fixing in the Indian Premier League.

Modi had virtually limped out of India in 2010 amidst a storm of allegations. The then Congress led government, facing a barrage of criticism, impounded his passport leaving him without travel documents in the UK even as inquiries were instituted. This was of course not the first time Modi had fallen foul of the law, having a rather early start actually. As the British media has reminded, and Wikipedia states, that as a student in the US,“On March 1, 1985, while a sophomore, Modi was arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, assault and second-degree kidnapping. On April 2, 1985, Modi and another student were indicted.Modi pleaded guilty to the crime when the case was heard in the Durham County court, North Carolina and later entered a plea bargain, which resulted in a suspended two-year prison sentence.”

Modi flew into the high league in India, his rise being fast paced by any standards. He had connections in all political parties, was supported by top politicians, and was seen as rather enmeshed in the internal politics of the Bharatiya Janata party. He was very close to Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje who was one of those responsible for Modi’s rise. She installed and protected him as chief of the Rajasthan cricket board, but when she was finally compelled by the BJP top brass to ‘dump him’ Lalit Modi lost little time in tweeting against his one time benefactor. He has always responded childishly to criticism, and even with the tag of former IPL commissioner he created ripples by accusing BJP seniors of “selling tickets for cash” in Rajasthan.

Lalit Modi never really got along with present Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and made no bones of it. He tweeted at one point, “BJP might not win election in rajasthan is due to Gang of thugs installed by Master Fixer Arun Jaitley into the core of @VasundharaBJP camp.” The BJP had dismissed his allegations as baseless, but these caused grave embarrassment to Raje. Another sample, “"Elections round the corner ----- seems coterie of Arun Jaitley-Bhupendra Yadav has started to sell tickets. Cash-for-tickets seems (to be the new) mantra.Sad.”

He tweeted warning Raje against then Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan Bhupendra Yadav who was in charge of her election campaign. He also warned her against her own officer on special duty Dhirendra Kamthan . His tweets gave sufficient fodder to the Congress to attack Raje and the BJP.

So while Vaz and Swaraj are both struggling to survive the flak from the opposition and within their own political parties, Lalit Modi is probably the least affected. He has his travel papers, he is well settled in London and as he told an Indian newspaper last year before the Lok Sabha elections in an interview, “I will be back.” To get an idea of how close he feels to the political set up, and how confident he is of his ability to bounce back read his responses to the questions asked to him by the DNA newspaper:

When will you be back in India?

Let the election results be out. It's just two weeks away. We will talk again.

So you are hoping that the new government, which is likely to headed by your namesake, will allow you to come back?

Look, there is a wind of change in India. I am sure there will be a new government. I don't have an axe to grind with any government. But yes, I do have an axe to grind with some people in the current government.(UPA at the time) It was a witch-hunt. And like you and many others in the country, I am looking forward to that wind of change.

It is rumoured that Arun Jaitley will be a very important person in the new government. And the same man was part of the BCCI disciplinary committee, which suspended you...

That doesn't matter. It isn't about an individual. It's about a govt policy. In any case, you can't expect to have everybody on your side. We also have a lot of friends. I am not worried about Jaitley. I have democratically won my election. Let him first win his election. Then we'll talk.

So you hope to use your good offices with the BJP to come back to India?

I have a good relationship with many people in the BJP. I won't take names, though. Look, my job is to work for cricket. I am just doing that.