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Release my letters to Britain on Lalit Modi, says Chidambaram
Chennai, June 17
Congress leader P.
Chidambaram on Wednesday demanded that the central government release
the letters exchanged between him as the union finance minister and
British Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne on the case against
former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
Speaking to the media here,
Chidambaram urged the government to make public the correspondence
between him and the British chancellor of exchequer, and asked who in
the Centre took the decision not to file an appeal in the Supreme Court
against the Delhi High Court order to restore Lalit Modi's passport.
"Why is the government fighting shy of releasing the letters?" Chidambaram asked.
He
said the external affairs minister should have advised Lalit Modi to
apply for temporary travel papers to the Indian High Commission in
Britain as he is an Indian citizen.
Chidambaram wondered why
Sushma Swaraj asked a British parliamentarian to facilitiate travel
papers to Modi to journey to Portugal.
Recalling from his memory,
Chidambaram said he wrote to his British counterpart Osborne that Lalit
Modi was being investigated under Indian laws and the British
government should send him back to India as his passport was revoked by
the Indian government.
According to Chidambaram, current Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley has said Lalit Modi has been issued 15 show cause
notices, out of 16 cases for which he is being investigated.
Not
terming the controversy as a corruption in the BJP-led central
government, Chidambaram said the help given to Lalit Modi was a clear
case of abuse of authority, nepotism and flouting of rules.
He demanded answers to his questions:
(a) Why is the government not releasing the letters between him and his British counterpart?
(b)
Who took the decision in the government against going on appeal against
the Delhi High Court's ruling restoring passport to Modi?
(c)
Why did Sushma Swaraj not advise Modi to approach the Indian High
Commission and apply for temporary travel documents to travel to
Portugal?
(d) Why didn't Sushma Swaraj insist that Modi return to India for issue of travel documents?
(e) Who took the decision to issue a fresh passport to Modi?
(f) Has the Indian government lodged its objections to the British government on the issue of long visa for Modi?
(g)
Is not the BJP government capable of providing security to Modi's life
when he says his life is at risk if he comes back to India?
Citing
Jaitley's comment that as a government, it was the collective
responsibility for the decisions taken, Chidambaram said it means Prime
Minister Narendra Modi was also responsible for the decisions taken in
the case of Lalit Modi.