Govt tears into Cong, rejects demand for Sushma's exit

Government today tore into Congress for its allegations against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Lalit Modi issue and ruled out her resignation, saying she had been made a "scapegoat of a pretext" to stall reform legislations.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Lok Sabha that the previous UPA government had not taken any concrete steps to bring back Lalit Modi, who is facing money laundering charges, as the Congress-led dispensation was on the "wrong route".
He said Lalit Modi was not a "fugitive" in law when Swaraj had spoken to British authorities with regard to his travel documents and had become so only on August 5 when the present government obtained a warrant from a Mumbai court.

"The allegations are baseless...The government rejects each of theses charges (leveled by Congress) and the question of Sushmaji resigning does not arise," asserted Jaitley while replying to the charged debate on Adjournment Motion brought by Congress. The Motion was later defeated by voice vote after Congress staged a walkout.
Jaitley said Congress had made "mountain of what was not even a mole hill" by raising only "hollow slogans" and ensuring a washout of Parliament session.
Taking at dig at Congress Vice President who had raised various issues during his brief speech, Jaitley said, "the difficulty with Rahul Gandhi is that he is an expert without knowledge."

On the allegations that daughter of Swaraj had represented Lalit Modi in a court, he said, she was one in a "crowd" of lawyers representing Modi.
He used this as a handle apparently to hit out at Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as he said, "There are still many honest people whose children have to work for a living. For generations, generation of the family who have dominated this country's politics have not worked for a living. They have learnt the art of living comfortably without working. Some of us are not.