Rajasthan MoU with Portuguese foundation one-sided: Congress

Continuing its attack on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the Congress on Friday said an agreement inked by her government with Portugal's Champalimaud Foundation was "one-sided" and was a "quid-pro quo".

The Rajasthan government reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the private Portuguese biomedical research organisation in October 2014 fo the setting up of a state-of-the-art cancer institute in Jaipur.

The MoU was inked with the Lisbon-based organisation about two months after former IPL chief Lalit Modi's wife Minal underwent medical treatment there.

Reiterating the demand for the resignation of Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for their alleged help to Lalit Modi, Congress general secretary C.P. Joshi said: "The impression that people are getting is that the (Narendra) Modi government is running a conglomerate of tainted ministers.

"The prime minister is not saying whether it is a policy decision by him that the British government should give travel documents to Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds," he said, adding that: "Big Modi is helping small Modi."

Terming the MoU signed with the Champalimaud Foundation as totally "one-sided", he said: "It is a clear-cut deal of quid pro quo, signed in the presence of Vasundhara Raje.

"The MoU states that government of Rajasthan will provide land and will incur the financial management of the hospital. The chief minister of Rajasthan used resources of the state with the hospital who treated Lalit Modi's wife and signed an MoU with them.

"The MoU also states that the Rajasthan government will constitute a society for financial management of the centre," he said.

Also training his guns on Sushma Swaraj, Joshi said that if she gave the go-ahead for giving him travel documents on "humanitarian grounds", then Lalit Modi should have been deported to India.

"If this had been the only criteria, then he would have been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate."

He said the Congress expected the prime minister to speak out and tell both Sushma Swaraj and Raje to quit.