 "Congress refreshes Raje's memory")
The new twist to a controversy that has dominated for nearly a fortnight came on a day full of bad news for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s key women politicians. In Mumbai, its Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde found her role questioned in awarding of contracts to supply food items to schools, while a Delhi court took cognizance of a complaint claiming Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani gave conflicting details of her education in affidavits to the Election Commission since 2004.
The Congress demanded the resignations of Raje, Irani and also External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The focus of the attack, though, was primarily on Raje.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing in the afternoon, dismissed the demand. "Our ministers do not have to resign. This is not their [Congress's] government. This is NDA government," he said. Among other things, the Cabinet decided the monsoon session of Parliament be held from July 21 to August 13.
But by evening, the new revelations had altered BJP's response, at least about Raje. Party Spokesperson Sambit Patra said the veracity of the documents, which the Congress had made public, needed to be ascertained. He qualified this by asserting his party stood for propriety. According to party sources, BJP has asked Raje to furnish her defence. Raje has already cancelled a previously scheduled visit to London in connection with the Rajasthan government investment summit. Incidentally, BJP member of Parliament and former Union home secretary R K Singh said on Tuesday "any help to a fugitive is legally and morally wrong".
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alluded to the former home secretary's comment more than once while making public the documents at a party press conference.
"The curtains are off, the secret is out. The document signed by Vasundhara Raje dated August 18, 2011, supporting his [Lalit Modi's] immigration case before the British government is out. When the issue came out first, she feigned ignorance and then said she does not remember," he said.
Ramesh said Raje agreed to become a witness to the former Indian Premier League commissioner's immigration application, provided it was kept a secret in India. "BJP has always maintained that if papers are produced with her signature, then she is culpable. There is no need of anymore evidence. Vasundhara Raje stands thoroughly exposed," Ramesh said.
He said the Congress was seeking her immediate resignation as she had broken four laws: the Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Passport Act by backing a "fugitive". Ramesh said Raje, when she purportedly gave the document, held a constitutional position as the leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly. "BJP should be called Brazen Janata Party," Ramesh said to a question if Raje didn't quit even after the papers becoming public. "After tonight, the continuation of Raje as chief minister of Rajasthan is immoral and untenable," he said.
According to these documents, Raje had backed Lalit Modi's immigration plea on the pretext of him facing a "politically motivated" attack in India. The United Progressive Alliance government revoked Lalit Modi's passport in 2010 in the wake of money laundering investigations launched against him. The former Indian Premier League boss had by then started living in London.
"Certain elements within Indian politics seek to preserve their own interest by exacting revenge on political opponents. This is exactly the motive that is guiding the attack on Lalit at the moment in India," she had purportedly said in her witness statement before the British authorities. She insisted that by "destroying" and "discrediting" Lalit Modi the Congress party hoped to remove "one of my key supporters" from the political scene. "In the course of doing so by virtue of my association with him, they hope to politically discredit me as well," she said in the witness statement given on August 18, 2011.
"I make this statement in support of any immigration application that Lalit Modi makes but do on a strict condition that my assistance will not become known to the Indian authorities," Raje, then the Opposition Leader of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, said. She added when BJP was narrowly defeated by the Congress in 2008 "Lalit was one of my main supporters during the election campaign. Our close working relationship and association was public knowledge".