Role reversal?

Former finance minister P Chidambaram's vigorous questioning of the role of the Enforcement Directorate and the finance ministry in the entire Lalit Modi episode was not a suo motu intervention. Congress President Sonia Gandhi telephoned him and requested him to say something on the controversy. Chidambaram then dug out the records, including the letters he had written to the UK asking the Chancellor of the Exchequer to send Modi back and made parts of the correspondence public. In an unusual move, the UK government also confirmed that the Indian leader had indeed written to the government of UK.

This is a rare occasion when the Congress President herself asked a Congress member to jump into the fray. This is somewhat odd when Modi claims it was Pranab Mukherjee, also a former UPA finance minister, who is his enemy no 1 because it was Mukherjee who started the government's pursuit of Modi.