January 08, 2025 12:28 am (IST)
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Lalit Modi row: Oppositions demand Sushma Swaraj's resignation
New Delhi, June 15 (IBNS): Oppositions have mounted up pressure on the Narendra Modi government to sack Sushma Swaraj if she does not resign herself after the External Affairs Minister has been caught up in a huge controversy over helping helping former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi, who is accused of financial irregularities in the game, procure travel documents in the UK last year.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh tweeted: "Sushma resigning is not issue.Buck stops with MODI. Will he sack her is the question which TV channels should ask. Will they ? I hope not."
The Congress had already raised their demand for Swaraj's resignation since Sunday.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted: "I have greatest regard for Sushmaji. Never expected her to intervene to help a fugitive evading Look Out Notice when he is holidaying !"
Demanding her resignation, Singh posted: "She may be a victim of inner BJP fight as mentioned but now the matter is in Public Domain I appeal to her conscience and she should resign."
Former Union Minister P Chidambaram tweeted: "In the interest of transparency, Government of India should release the letters written to the UK Chancellor on the Lalit Modi case."
However, Swaraj has the support of the her party as well as Narendra Modi. The government has also ruled out the question of her resignation.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told media: "There was nothing wrong in what the external affairs minister did. The government is with her. I justify her action. Sushmaji only asked the British high commissioner to do whatever Britain's rules and regulations permitted."
Triggering a controversy, the External Affairs Minister on Sunday defended herself and said she helped convey his request to the British envoy 'taking a humanitarian view.'
In a series of tweets, Swaraj had said, "Sometime in July 2014 Lalit Modi spoke to me that his wife was suffering from Cancer and her surgery was fixed for 4th Aug in Portugal. He told me that he had to be present in the Hospital to sign the consent papers. He informed me that he had applied for travel documents in London and UK Government was prepared to give him the travel documents."
She had wrote: "However, they were restrained by a UPA Government communication that this will spoil Indo-UK relations. Taking a humanitarian view, I conveyed to the British High Commissioner that 'British Government should examine the request of Lalit Modi as per British rules and regulations."
"If the British Government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi, that will not spoil our bilateral relations. Keith Vaz also spoke to me and I told him precisely what I told the British High Commissioner. I genuinely believe that in a situation such as this, giving emergency travel documents to an Indian citizen cannot and should not spoil relations between the two countries," she hadsaid.
Lalit Modi has been in the UK since 2010 when the India Premier League was caught in a huge controversy over an alleged betting scandal.
Modi's passport was revoked in March that year.
However, Modi was given a visa after Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz recommended his name.
According to the British media, Vaz said Swaraj had pressurised UK's top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Modi.
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