New Delhi, Aug 7
The Congress party on
Thursday tore into the Narendra Modi government, saying its "arrogance
of power reached its zenith" when it asked External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj to "explain away her unpardonable impropriety, willful
lies, criminal intent, gross misuse of office and patent conflict of
interest in the garb of 'humanitarian grounds' to help Lalit Modia.
Sushma
Swaraj on Thursday made a passionate defence of her role in the Lalit
Modi affair, but the Congress termed her arguments as "hogwash".
Anand
Sharma, senior party spokesperson and deputy leader Rajya Sabha, in a
statement said the Modi government "first murdered democracy by
suspending 25 MPs and effectively expelled the entire opposition from
Lok Sabha".
The party accused the Modi government and Sushma Swaraj of "once againa misleading the country "shamelessly and unabashedly".
It
latched on to Sushma's tweets of June 14 in which she "admitted that
she enabled the British government to give Lalit Modi travel documents.
As admitted, his (Lalit Modi's) request for travel documents had been
rejected by British authorities on July 3, 2014. Obviously, only Sushma
Swaraj's intervention helped Lalit Modi get the travel documents by
making the British authorities reverse their decision," the Congress
argued.
The party said that Sushma Swaraj was maintaining a
family relationship with Lalit Modi, a fugitive of law, a FEMA violator
and a money-launderer for the last over 20 years, both as a leader of
opposition with cabinet status and then as the union external affairs
minister.
The Congress said that Sushma Swaraj received
telephonic calls in July 2014 as foreign minister to help a fugitive,
i.e., Lalit Modi.
In July 2014 itself, Sushma Swaraj herself
spoke to British Envoy, James Bevan to help such a fugitive get travel
documents from the British government. She, in the process, over-ruled
all objections of the government of India qua repatriation of Lalit Modi
to face prosecution in India.
She did not consult even the then
Foreign Secretary, Sujata Singh, or her own ministry. She also chose not
to consult the finance ministry or ED or DRI before overruling the
objections originally raised and communicated to the British government
by finance ministry, it said.
Sushma Swaraj also recommended the
case of Lalit Modi to the head of a parliamentary committee of a foreign
country, i.e., chairman, home affairs committee, House of Commons,
Britain - Keith Vaz to grant travel documents to Lalit Modi.
It
said her daughter was counsel for Lalit Modi in this case before the
division bench when it was decided against decision of foreign ministry
confiscating the passport.
Sushma Swaraj or her foreign ministry
never took opinion of counsel for foreign ministry, Rajiv Mehra, who
appeared before single and division bench qua filing of appeal in
Supreme Court. Rajiv Mehra now states that, "It (appeal to the Supreme
Court) should have been done. Normally, it is automatically done...."
Sushma
Swaraj, by her humanitarian gesture' (as she says), has permitted a
fugitive and money-launderer not only to travel from Britain to Portugal
but also facilitated his travel for holidays to resort town of Ibiza
(August 4, 2014) and back to his hideout in Britain to escape the Indian
law and authorities, who, according to the finance minister, were
chasing him for arrest.
He said the UPA government through its
then finance minister, P. Chidambaram, wrote two letters to Chancellor
of Exchequer George Osborne asking him for action against Lalit Modi
besides following it up with a personal meeting between India's finance
minister and chancellor of exchequer, Britain. But Sushma Swaraj
overruled the objections given earlier by the government of India.
External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj could not have withdrawn the written
communications of the government of India written through the then
finance minister without prior consent of the present finance minister
and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading to grant of travel documents
to Lalit Modi. Tacit approval of the Prime Minister is, thus, writ
large?, the Congress said.
The Congress continued its protest
inside and outside the parliament for the third successive day on
Thursday over suspension of its 25 MPs from the Lok Sabha as Congress
president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi mounted a
fresh attack on the Modi government over Naga accord, saying it had not
consulted party governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
