Headlines
Lalit Modi issue: Congress tells PM to speak up, more documents surface
New Delhi, July 1
External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj remained at the centre of a political storm on Wednesday
as new documents released allegedly showed that former IPL chief Lalit
Modi offered a job to her husband Swaraj Kaushal.
The Congress promptly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his "deafening" silence on the issue.
"Lalit
Modi made an offer (of job) to a family member of a minister. Why did
he do so? We want the prime minister to inquire," Congress spokesperson
Randeep Surjewala said here at a press conference.
"We have
demanded that all documents available in the case must be placed in
public domain. We should all know how Lalit Modi was being helped and
why was he being helped even as a fugitive," he added.
Documents
released on Wednesday allegedly show that Lalit Modi offered a job to
Swaraj Kaushal months after the External Affairs Minister helped the
tainted businessman obtain travel documents in the United Kingdom.
After the controversy erupted, Swaraj Kaushal accepted that he was offered a position by Lalit Modi.
"I
am a lawyer for Lalit Modi for over 20 years. I was offered to be
alternate director on Indofil Board, but I did not give my consent,"
Swaraj Kaushal told the media.
Continuing its attack on the NDA government, the Congress took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.
"The
Prime Minister owes it to the nation to break his silence on the
issue," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at another
press conference.
"You (PM) are maintaining a deafening silence.
They (BJP) are trying to brazen it out. We demand that the silence
should be broken. It is a situation wherein more you try to hide, the
more the truth comes out," Singhvi said.
Singhvi said the fact
that Swaraj Kaushal did not take up the offered job was not relevant.
"To have a fugitive, to have the foreign minister's husband being
offered a job is enough," he said.
"Does this justify the prime
minister's silence? Different ministers are saying there is no stigma.
There is no guilt. Who is giving this certificate of innocence? The BJP
ministers," the Congress leader said.
The BJP, however, continued to defend Sushma Swaraj.
"An
email is sent in a personal capacity to a professional appointee who is
a lawyer in this case, which is Swaraj Kaushal, and he has not even
accepted it. If this is the Congress' idea of impropriety, then they
need to reflect on all cases that happen every day in the country," BJP
spokesperson Nalin Kohli told IANS.
"The Congress has run out of ideas and is desperately clutching at straws," he added.
Earlier, Surjewala asked Sushma Swaraj to come clean on the Lalit Modi issue.
"Sushma
Swaraj must tell the people of the country how many times she has met
Lalit Modi or if any of her family members had been in touch with the
fugitive," he said.
Surjewala demanded that the BJP government
make public all letters exchanged between the previous UPA government
and authorities in Britain over the Lalit Modi issue.
Demanding
the resignation of Sushma Swaraj, Surjewala reminded the BJP that
"during the UPA government's tenure, the Congress got then foreign
ministers Madhav Singh Solanki and Natwar Singh to resign on moral
grounds".
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that
disruptions were expected in the upcoming monsoon session of parliament
as major opposition parties appeared united over the Lalit Modi issue.
"Since
all the major opposition parties have come out against the Lalit Modi
issue, there is going to be an uproar on the issue in the coming
session," Yechury said during an interaction with journalists at the
Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC).
Meanwhile, Lalit Modi dragged
BJP leader Varun Gandhi into the row. He claimed that Varun Gandhi met
him in London "a few years ago" and offered to "settle everything" with
Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Though Varun Gandhi accepted meeting Lalit Modi, the BJP leader's aide denied having struck any deal with him.
"Varun-ji
met Lalit Modi in London along with MLA Jagat Singh from Bharatpur,
Rajasthan, three years ago. He was in London and the meeting was only by
chance. There was no kind of deal or discussion over his help," an aide
to Varun Gandhi told IANS, requesting anonymity.
Lalit Modi on
late Tuesday alleged in a series of tweets that Varun Gandhi met him and
offered to settle everything with his aunt Sonia Gandhi.