Minister Sushma Swaraj Makes Case for 'Compassion' over Law in Favour of Lalit Modi

NEW DELHI: Finally Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj made her statement on the help extended by her to former IPL chief Lalit Modi who is wanted in India for alleged financial irregularities. In fact her colleague Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said earlier that there was a ‘blue corner’ notice out for him.

Swaraj spoke to empty opposition benches in the Lok Sabha, in a high pitched emotional tenor. She said that even Sonia Gandhi would have not turned down the application that was made on humanitarian grounds, and was her response not to Lalit Modi but to his wife who was undergoing treatment in a Portugal hospital for “a life threatening” ailment. As a Congress MP told The Citizen, it was fortunate for her that the Opposition was not present (it is boycotting the Lok Sabha because of the suspension of 25 MPs by the Speaker) as she would not have been able to continue with her “strange” argument.

The Congress party later held a press conference to point out the many discrepancies in what really amounted to an emotional outburst by the Minister. The letter of the law was brushed aside as she focused on compassion and ‘humanitarian’ aspects. It was left to Congress MP Anand Sharma to make the following logical points:

1. How could the Minister of External Affairs use private channels to get travel papers for a person wanted under the Indian law?

2. Why was the Ministry of External Affairs including the Foreign Secretary and India’s High Commissioner to the UK kept out of the picture?

3. The correct procedure under the law---if indeed the humanitarian argument was to prevail---would have been to issue travel papers through the Indian government as Lalit Modi is an Indian citizen. Why did the Minister using her authority, but keeping the Ministry out of the process, ask a foreign government to clear his request?

4. What was ‘life threatening’ about the case? The Minister’s own statement spoke of “therapeutic procedure” that was a reference to Radiation.

5. Besides Lalit Modi in his own requests to the UK authorities for travel papers had listed his wife’s illness as the second reason, and the third reason in consecutive appeals. The first item was for a relative’s marriage.

6. He used the travel papers to travel across the world almost immediately, and himself confessed to partying at resorts.

The main emphasis remained on Minister Sushma Swaraj’s personal intervention while using the clout of her office; of circumventing government channels and procedure; and of seeking a favour from the UK authorities to “help” Lalit Modi.

The Congress and the Left have rejected her statement. Sharma accused her of “misusing her office in her keenness to help a person wanted by the law agencies of India to escape the law.”

Clearly the statement by the Minister has fuelled the fire, and the demand for her resignation along with the others implicated in the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scams will escalate.