Sushma targets Rajiv Gandhi as Cong rejects her claim in Lalit Modi case

New Delhi, August 12 : The Congress on Wednesday rejected External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s claim of helping Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds in Lok Sabha, saying she could have done it under a legal framework and demanded her resignation on moral grounds. Fighting back, Swaraj said the Congress had helped Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and Bhopal gas leak accused Warren Anderson flee from India and targeted Rajiv Gandhi.
The attack by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the House, which saw normalcy virtually for the first time in the monsoon session, came during a discussion on the Lalit Modi controversy. He also called for a reply from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not Swaraj, whose “role” is being debated.
Making a statement in Lok Sabha, Swaraj specifically responded to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s charge that she had got money to help Lalit Modi by telling him to ask his “mamma” as to “how much money had been taken from Quattrocchi” and “why did ‘daddy’ (Rajiv Gandhi) get released the killer of 15,000 people (in Bhopal gas leak),” an apparent reference to Anderson.
The debate on the issue over which Parliament has been paralysed for the last four weeks was taken up on the penultimate day of the session after the government agreed to accept an adjournment motion as was demanded by the Opposition.
Initiating the debate, Kharge picked holes in the External Affairs Minister’s defence and raised a host of questions as to why she agreed to help a “fugitive” probed by the Enforcement Directorate.“You have said that you helped him on humanitarian grounds. If you had to help him on humanitarian grounds, you could have done so legally,” the Congress leader told Swaraj whose resignation is being demanded over the issue.Kharge wondered as to why the government did not appeal in the Supreme Court’s against the Delhi High Court’s decision to restore his passport.He also asked who among the Prime Minister, Finance Ministry or External Affairs Ministry was responsible for not appealing against the order.He also refused to accept Swaraj’s contention that she had only responded “orally” to the British envoy’s query that bilateral relations will not be affected if Lalit Modi was granted travel documents to visit his ailing wife in Portugal.“Is that not a recommendation,” Kharge asked and contended that she did not even speak to her own ministry officials regarding the issue.