Jaitley comes out to defend Sushma

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today sought to do some damage control by coming out in defence of Sushma Swaraj over her help to scam-tainted Lalit Modi while Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to be targeted in the 'Modigate' by Congress.
Two days after the raging controversy broke out triggering a political storm for the Modi government, Jaitley, Swaraj, who holds the External Affairs portfolio, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh met in the Home Ministry and discussed the entire issue for an hour before Singh and Jaitley held a press conference.
"All allegations levelled are baseless. Her (Swaraj) statement and that of the party President (show) that whatever she did was with good intentions.

"She acted bona fide. The entire government and the party are one on the issue. There should be no doubt on this," Jaitley said with Singh by his side.
Jaitley's defence of his cabinet colleague comes two days after party President Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh had asserted that Swaraj had acted on humanitarian considerations in the matter of helping former IPL boss Lalit Modi get travel documents from Britain.
Modi, former IPL boss, has taken refuge in London for over five years after the Enforcement Directorate levelled money laundering and other charges against him involving an amount of Rs 1,700 crore and wants him for investigations in India in the 2009 IPL scam.

Speculation has been rife over the "silence" of Jaitley after the controversy broke out on Sunday over Swaraj's help to Lalit Modi.
There have been reports that the Finance Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry are involved in a blame game over who should appeal against the Delhi High Court order quashing the revocation of Lalit Modi's passport in August last year.