Not involved in quid pro quo: Sushma Swaraj

Attacking the Congress on its charge that she benefited by helping former IPL chief Lalit Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said "it was the Congress that allowed Warren Anderson to escape as part of a quid pro quo arrangement with the US".

"My husband did not take any money from Lalit Modi," she said in her speech in the Lok Sabha during a debate held under an adjournment motion on extending favours to former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi.

There is no conflict of interest in my case. My husband and daughter didn't take even a rupee in the Lalit Modi passport case. There is a conflict of interest in P. Chidambaram's case. He was the finance minister when his wife Nalini Chidambaram was the lawyer in the Saradha chit fund scam case, whose file was with his ministry.

"My daughter did not earn even one rupee from Lalit Modi. She was appearing with her senior; she was a junior, that too at number nine," she said.

"I would like to reply to Rahul Gandhi, who says that Sushma helped a fugitive...he was not a fugitive, no court had declared him a fugitive then," she said, asking what paper she signed.

"Tell, what did I sign for him (Lalit Modi)," the minister asked Rahul Gandhi.

Sushma Swaraj alleged that the Congress had allowed (Union Carbide Corporation chairman) Anderson to run away to the US (after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy) under a quid pro quo arrangement in which Adil Shahryar, a close friend of the Gandhi family, was released from prison.

"I did not do anything discreetly. If anything of that sort was done, it was done by you...you (Congress) helped Quattrocchi leave India," she alleged, adding that she was not saying all this on her own, and it was all mentioned in a book written by Congress leader Arjun Singh.

Attacking Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against her, the minister said that whenever he goes on leave next, he must read the history of his family.

"When he (Rahul Gandhi) goes on leave next, he should read the history of his family and then ask his mother how much money the family receive from Anderson," Swaraj said.

The minister's remark came in the light of Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi leading multi-party protests to seek Sushma Swaraj's resignation for allegedly favouring Lalit Modi.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi said parliament would function after Sushma Swaraj disclosed her family's financial transactions with the former IPL chief, facing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.

"Please explain how much money of Lalit Modi has come into your family's account," he sought to know from Sushma Swaraj.

The Congress is demanding the resignation of Sushma Swaraj over her alleged help to Lalit Modi in getting British travel documents.

Sushma Swaraj has denied helping Lalit Modi but his ailing wife who had to undergo a medical procedure for treatment of cancer.