Sushma's disclosure sounds like case of 'Modi helping Modi': Congress

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala on Sunday said that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's acknowledgement of the role played by her office in helping former IPL chairman Lalit Modi receiving the travel documents sounds like a case of 'Modi helping Modi', adding that her declaration makes her position 'untenable'.

"This is extremely serious, grave in nature and reflects gross impropriety on the part of the External Affairs Minister. Allegations that Sushma Swaraj and UK MP Keith Vaz helped Lalit Modi, against whom a red corner notice was issued by the Enforcement Directorate, are indeed shocking. If all these allegations are correct, as the emails [between Modi and Vaz], as now admitted by Sushma Swaraj, it makes her position completely untenable," Surjewala told ANI.

"She needs to resign in the highest of moral standards, as also to uphold a fair investigation against her. It also raises certain pertinent questions. Why was the Government of India and its External Affairs Ministry helping Modi, who is an ED accused and against whom a red corner notice has been issued? Was [Prime Minister] Modi helping Modi?" he added.

Surjewala also raised the question as to why Modi had been helped in receiving the requisite papers.

"Was Sushma Swaraj acting at the behest of the Prime Minister? Was she acting on her own, without consent of the Prime Minister? Why was an accused like Lalit Modi helped? I think this entire matter needs explanation," he said.

The Congress leader further noted that former minister Shashi Tharoor had resigned from his position when his name cropped up during an investigation into the IPL.

"I would like to remind the government that when, in a similar IPL issue, the name of the then-MoS for HRD Shashi Tharoor was raised then then-Congress government had accepted his resignation on moral grounds," he said.

Sharing her thoughts on twitter, Swaraj had earlier in the day said that she had taken a humanitarian view of Modi's case since his wife was suffering from cancer.

Swaraj further said that British MP Keith Vaz had spoken to her on the same, adding she believes that giving an Indian citizen 'emergency travel documents' cannot spoil relations between India and the UK.

Vaz, who is facing an inquiry in the UK over the role he played in Modi receiving his travel papers, said that he had checked with the Indian Government before taking any action and added that he had received a 'no objection' from New Delhi.