Congress seeks FIR, Rahul Gandhi says Sushma Swaraj couldn’t have acted on own, must go

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While clarifying that it wasn’t asking for the PM’s resignation, the Congress said there were serious doubts regarding his role and conduct and asked him to explain his position. It also demanded the registration of an FIR against Swaraj for helping Lalit Modi.

Releasing three photographs of Lalit Modi with the PM and BJP chief Amit Shah before the two assumed their present offices, Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala said it seems the former IPL chief had a long-standing relationship with them.

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“Would any reasonable person believe that all these actions were being taken by the External Affairs Minister without the direct complicity and approval of the Prime Minister?” Surjewala added. “More so, when the Prime Minister is known to keep tabs even over the dinners and attires worn by his ministers, no sane person would believe that the External Affairs Minister was acting at own behest,” he said.

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Reacting sharply to the Congress releasing pictures of the PM with Lalit Modi, the BJP accused the party of “political bankruptcy”, “cheap politics” and of attempting to “make a mountain out of a molehill”. If the Congress wants such a slugfest, the BJP said, it could also produce hundreds of photos of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi with alleged accused in scams such as coal, 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and Aircel-Maxis deal.

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Asked whether the Congress wanted the PM to resign, Surjewala said the party was not seeking that. “We want first that the Prime Minister must answer… We are saying that the Prime Minister’s conduct first needs to be examined.

Is there a connection? Was there a quid pro quo? What was the relationship if any that the Prime Minister had with Lalit Modi? Was the External Affairs Minister acting at the instance of the Prime Minister? Was the Prime Minister helping an absconder and fugitive… If all these facts are correct, then the Prime Minister has lost the moral right to continue, but it is subject to explanation, verification and authentication of reports,” Surjewala said.

Read Also: Sushma’s act indicates govt aiding fugitive with PM’s approval: Congress

The Congress also released emails that, it claimed, were written by Lalit Modi, to multiple recipients, including Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri, informing them that he had filed a representation before the United Kingdom home office for a travel document.

In one of the e-mails, Lalit Modi says the home office “needed in writing from the GOI (government of India)” and  that “in GOI, someone is working to find a solution now”.

Accusing Swaraj of helping Lalit Modi “escape” the blue corner notice and “summons” issued to him in India, the Congress rejected her argument that she acted in humanitarian interest.

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Pointing out that Lalit Modi faced multiple charges, Surjewala said, “Section 107 of the IPC provides punishment for abetment or aiding by any act, or illegal omission… Is she (Swaraj) not an abettor to the crime? Should an FIR not be lodged against her?”

He also noted that while Swaraj had said she asked the British government to consider Lalit Modi’s request as his wife needed surgery and he needed to be there to sign consent papers, UK Labour MP Keith Vaz’s letters to British authorities, Director General of UK Visas & Immigration Sarah Rapson and Home Office’s Lisa Killham cited a family wedding abroad to which Lalit Modi needed to accompany his wife.

“Is it not apparent that Swaraj and Vaz were trying to help secure travel documents for Modi for conflicting reasons?” Surjewala said.

Besides, Surjewala argued, “A written consent is not required in Portugal at all.” He released a copy of ‘patient’s right in Portugal’.

Questioning the PM’s silence, the Congress said, “He who tweets on everything does not speak anything at all now.”

“Incontrovertible facts, documents and details of the ‘Modigate’ scandal clearly reflect active complicity of not only the External Affairs Minister but also point towards the entire BJP government aiding and abetting a fugitive of Indian law with tacit approval of the Prime Minister,” the party said.

“For a Prime Minister who single-handedly runs the foreign ministry with the External Affairs Minister playing second fiddle, Shri Narendra Modi’s complicity in providing favours to a legally established offender and absconder — Lalit Modi — is nothing but open to negative interpretation.”

Taking a jibe at the PM, Rahul, who was in Chhattisgarh on Monday, said, “PM Modi had promised to bring back black money to the country. Mr Lalit Modi is a symbol of black money from outside.”

Asked whether Swaraj should resign, he said “absolutely”. “PM Modi should sack her.”

The Congress also recalled that in May 2013, P Chidambaram as finance minister had written twice to the UK chancellor of exchequer seeking action against Lalit Modi and his repatriation to India for facing trial in various cases.

Asking why the Congress was showing a photograph of an IPL match of 2010 in 2015, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told the media, “We also want to ask, let the Congress answer, where their leader had gone on vacation and on what visa?”

Javadekar also said that the photo showing the PM and Shah with Lalit Modi was at a public match when Narendra Modi was heading the Gujarat Cricket Association and there was no case against the former IPL chairman at the time. If this was the case the Congress wanted to build, he added, “then there are hundreds of pictures of Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajiv Shukla with Lalit Modi”.

On the Congress’s charge that Lalit Modi was a fugitive, Javadekar noted that it was during UPA rule that Modi had left the country. “In your government’s time, (Warren) Anderson (former CEO of erstwhile Union Carbide) also left the country. This is the Congress’s record.”