New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj Swaraj also spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi explaining her position on the issue of writing to the British MP to help Mr Lalit Modi obtain travel papers. The government, BJP and the RSS strongly backed Ms Swaraj and rejected the demands for her resignation, asserting that she had done no wrong and had only acted on “humanitarian” grounds.
The government support was expressed after home minister Rajnath Singh met the Prime Minister. “We want to make it clear that whatever she has done is right. We justify it and the government completely stands by her,” Mr Singh said. Supporting Ms Swaraj’s action, home minister Rajnath Singh said Ms Swaraj told Vaz to do only what was “allowed” as per the rules and regulations of the UK.
“Any person with humanitarian approach” should do the same, Mr Singh said dismissing demands for her resignation. “I genuinely believe that in a situation, giving emergency travel documents to an Indian citizen cannot and should not spoil relations between the two countries,” the external affairs Minister said.
“I may also state that only few days later, Delhi High Court quashed the UPA government’s order impounding Lalit Modi’s passport on the ground that the order was unconstitutional being violative of fundamental rights and he got his passport back,” Ms Swaraj said.
The issue came to light after revelation of some emails showing that Ms Swaraj had spoken to Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz and the country’s High Commissioner James Bevan favouring the grant of travel documents to Lalit Modi. The former IPL boss is wanted in India and has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe in this for alleged betting and misappropriation of funds in T20.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has written to Kathryn Hudson, UK parliamentary standards commissioner, to investigate whether Vaz had breached the MPs’ code of conduct. It may be noted, shortly after he received his UK travel documents last summer after a lengthy legal battle with the UK home office, Lalit Modi described Vaz as a “superstar”.
