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Lalit Modi-Vasundhara Raje friendship was once the talk of Rajasthan (News Analysis)
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By Anil SharmaJaipur, June 19
The friendship between former
IPL boss Lalit Modi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje may
have dimmed but there was a time when people in Rajasthan used to talk
about the closeness between the two.
Lalit Modi in his interview
to a TV channel has acknowledged the fact of his long friendship with
Raje. "My relationship with Vasundhara Raje goes back 30 years. She is a
close friend of the family and my wife," Modi told India Today TV this
week.
Raje, in a statement issued recently, has accepted the fact
that she knows the family of the former India Premier League
commissioner who is charged with financial impropriety and money
laundering.
People of Rajasthan came to know about Modi when he
became Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president in 2005, when the
Raje-led BJP government was in power in the state. And after that there
was no looking back for Modi, who eventually became the first IPL
chairman.
After Raje became chief minister in 2003, and remained in
the post till 2008, Modi was accused of running a parallel government.
He was known to have booked a suite for himself in a five-star hotel
where he would come and stay. Congress leaders accuse him of even
interfering in running of the government at that time.
"At times the
officers met him in his (hotel) suite with files, but Raje never
stopped them even though she knew about it," Ashok Gehlot, former chief
minister of Rajasthan, had alleged in 2010 while addressing a press
conference when he was the chief minister.
Gehlot of the Congress in
a statement issued recently said, "I have been constantly raising the
corruption nexus between Vasundhara Raje and Lalit Modi since 2003-04."
The
relationship was so close between the two that Raje, who according to
Modi had accompanied his wife to Portugal for her cancer treatment in
2012 and 2013, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the same
cancer institute in 2014 to set up a modern cancer institute in Jaipur.
As
per a government of Rajasthan press release, the Raje-led BJP
government entered into a memorandum of understanding on October 2, 2014
with the Champalimaud Foundation of Portugal where Lalit Modi's wife
was treated. The MOU was signed in the presence of Raje where she also
spoke and said that cancer patients will get better treatment and the
centre will prove to be a boon for people who cannot afford the high
cost of cancer treatment.
According to an official statement issued
on that day, the state government allotted 34,400 sq metre land in the
Rajasthan Health Science University premise at Pratap Nagar, Jaipur for
this institute. As per the MOU, the Champalimaud Foundation will extend
technical support in designing the infrastructure of the centre. It will
also provide technical support in finalizing specifications and
selection of equipment for diagnosis, treatment and research.
The
close friendship between the two, however, turned sour. Though no one is
sure of the reason but one of the reasons was reportedly also the
ticket distribution in the 2013 assembly elections.
The name of Raje
cropped up on Tuesday in connection with the Lalit Modi affair over
allegations that she testified in favour of the former IPL chief’s
British immigration application in 2011.
The opposition Congress has
demanded Raje’s resignation for helping Modi, who is charged by the
Enforcement Directorate with financial impropriety and money laundering
in connection with the money-spinning IPL cricket tourney.
The
revelations about Raje came in the aftermath of the controversy over
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helping Modi, who lives in
London since 2010, with travel documents. Sushma has admitted she helped
Modi travel to Portugal last July for treatment of his cancer-stricken
wife on "humanitarian grounds".
(Anil Sharma can be contacted at [email protected] )