 "Sushma Swaraj under attack for helping Lalit Modi")
According to news reports published in London's Sunday Times on June 7 and Sunday, leaked email correspondence revealed British Member of Parliament Keith Vaz of the Labour Party, with the support of Swaraj, intervened with his country's immigration office in mid-2014 to arrange travel documents for Lalit Modi to visit his ailing wife in Portugal. Besides, what was seen as quid pro quo, the emails indicated that Lalit Modi had a year prior to this asked Vaz to help Jyotirmay Kaushal, the nephew of Swaraj's husband Swaraj Kaushal, get admission in a law school in the UK. Swaraj denied this claim.
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Former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi has been in the UK since India's external affairs ministry revoked his passport in 2010. He had fled to London following an Enforcement Directorate investigation over money-laundering charges. The agency had also issued a blue-corner notice on Lalit Modi through Interpol.
Incidentally, Sushma Swaraj's daughter, Bansuri, was part of the team of lawyers representing Lalit Modi in the Delhi High Court.
Amid the latest controversy, the Congress demanded Swaraj's resignation. But BJP and RSS were quick in coming to her defence. BJP President Amit Shah said there was "no big moral issue" involved. "The government stands by her," said Home Minister Rajnath Singh, adding what Swaraj did was on humanitarian grounds. RSS' Indresh Kumar, meanwhile, termed her a patriot.
The Congress also asked if Swaraj's help to a fugitive was on the behest of the Prime Minister himself. "Was (Narendra) Modi helping (Lalit) Modi," asked Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. He pointed out it was known that Lalit Modi had been close to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Shah.
Surjewala posed 11 questions to the Modi government and doubted its claims of bringing back 'black money'. "If tomorrow Dawood Ibrahim wants help on humanitarian grounds, will they help?," he asked. He also recalled how BJP, as an Opposition party, had demanded that Shashi Tharoor, then a Union minister, quit because his wife had a share in an IPL team.
The seemingly political slugfest, apparently a result of Vaz being investigated in the UK for conflict of interest, was also seen in Lutyens' Delhi as fallout of the high-stakes politics at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Many political leaders, across the political spectrum, are known to be associated with cricket politics, too. The Congress also referred to the BJP chief's link with cricket.
According to sources, Swaraj spoke to the Prime Minister and the home minister in the morning. Later, in a series of posts on microblogging site Twitter, she tried to clarify her position. She said Lalit Modi had spoken to her sometime in July 2014, saying his wife was suffering from cancer and her surgery was fixed for August 4 in Portugal. "He told me he had to be present in the hospital to sign the consent papers. He informed me he had applied for travel documents in London and the UK government was prepared to give him those documents. However, they were restrained by a communication from the previous government, and thought such a move might spoil India-UK relations," she said in a series of tweets.
"Taking a humanitarian view, I conveyed to the British High Commissioner that the British government should examine the request of Lalit Modi according to British rules and regulations. If the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi, that will not spoil our bilateral relations," Swaraj said. She admitted that Keith Vaz also spoke to her. "I genuinely believe that in a situation like this, giving emergency travel documents to an Indian citizen could not and should not spoil relations between the two countries."
The minister added a few days after this incident, the Delhi High Court quashed the previous government's order impounding Lalit Modi's passport on the grounds that the order was unconstitutional and violated fundamental rights. "Regarding (her husband's nephew) Jyotirmay Kaushal's admission in a law course at Sussex University, he secured admission through the normal admission process in 2013, a year before I became a minister," Swaraj claimed.
According to The Sunday Times report, the leaked correspondence revealed that Vaz last June wrote to the UK Visas and Immigration chief, Sarah Rapson, to facilitate Lalit Modi's travel documents. Then chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select committee, Vaz is currently seeking re-election to that role. The British Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is probing him for conflict of interest, as he was responsible for scrutinising the work of Rapson and the Immigration Department.