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Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday warned the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament could be in jeopardy if External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia were not made to resign. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained that there was nothing ‘technically illegal’ in the dealings of either Raje or her son Dushyant Singh with former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi.
According to insiders, the government is willing to defend Swaraj, Raje and her son even if it meant sacrificing the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament.
Ramesh, who led the attack against the Narendra Modi government alleged that the issue had snowballed from impropriety to a clear nexus between Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi, Swaraj, Raje and BJP president Amit Shah. “Lalit Modi-Gautam Adani nexus has also been clearly established by the documents now in the public domain,” Ramesh added. “We hope after the Yoga Day (June 21), the PM will take some strong action; there is no other way.”
Ramesh added: “The nexus was seeded when the PM was the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association and bloomed when the BJP president took over. If this is not crony capitalism that the finance minister (Arun Jaitley) speaks about all the time, what is?”
While the BJP was less than willing to defend the ethical aspects of either Raje or her son’s help to or financial relations with Lalit Modi, party sources conceded that the controversy was costing it heavily in terms of the perception war. However, the party would support Swaraj, Raje and her son, they added.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said while the party's top leadership has made its position clear on the issue of Swaraj, the validity of the documents produced against Raje are not yet verified.
“The question is imaginary. There is no technical and legal basis that you can say there is any point of impropriety,” he said to questions on whether there will be action against Swaraj and Raje. To a question on whether they will be removed, he said: “The very question is imaginary and there is no reason behind it.”
Shah met Narendra Modi on Thursday evening. Home minister Rajnath Singh had also met the PM on Thursday. While party sources said Shah had accompanied farmers from Uttar Pradesh and the home minister discussed other government-related issues, both have reportedly discussed with the PM the present crisis.
Raje was scheduled to share the dais with the home minister and Shah at a function to mark 350 years of the Sikh shrine at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab in the afternoon on Friday. “Due to back pain, the Chief Minster's doctor has advised her to take rest, so she has cancelled her visit to Punjab,” Raje's press advisor said in Jaipur. Raje had spoken to Shah over phone on Wednesday to explain her position.
While questioning the “studied silence” of the PM, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad hit out at the Centre, accusing it of “political vendetta”. The Central Bureau of Investigation has re-ignited a disproportionate assets case against Congress Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh.
Coming out in open support of their chief minister, senior Congress ministers of Himachal Pradesh government on Friday came out with a joint statement alleging the Centre was “pressurising and misusing” investigating agencies to “harass” political opponents. They accused the BJP of trying to de-stabilise the elected Congress government in the state.
The Rajasthan BJP had on Thursday held a press conference to defend Raje and Dushyant Singh.
