The row over help to tainted former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi by two BJP stalwarts Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje deepened today in the aftermath of his claim of his close ties with them as Congress mounted fresh pressure for their removal from their posts.
Government put up a muted defence of External Affairs Minister Swaraj but was more circumspect in the case of Rajasthan Chief Minister Raje with Telecom Minister Ravishankar Prasad saying they would await details regarding her purported help to Modi on his immigration plea.
Trouble for the Narendra Modi government grew after Modi's explosive claims in a television interview last night that Raje had supported in writing his immigration plea in Britain and that he has a "family" relationship with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj whose husband and daughter had provided legal services "free of cost" to him.
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Modi had also said Raje had accompanied his wife to Portugal for her cancer treatment two years ago. Raje became chief minister of Rajasthan for the second time in December 2013.
Adding to Raje's problems were media reports that Modi had invested Rs 11.63 crore in a firm owned by Raje's son Dushyant Singh in 2008.
There was no comment from the Chief Minister today while Swaraj confided her remarks in a tweet saying "My daughter is a Barrister and Oxford graduate. What you say is absolutely false."
At a press conference post the Cabinet meeting, Prasad defended Swaraj saying "as far as impropriety allegation is concerned, I don't buy that logic. It was just a case of compassionate intervention for a humanitarian cause. That's all."
With regard to the surfacing of a document in which Raje allegedly backed Lalit Modi's immigration plea, Prasad appeared a bit guarded.
"As regards to the Rajasthan issue, the details will have to be enquired into. The details will have to be taken," he said, recalling that the Chief Minister had already spoken on the matter yesterday.
However, significantly BJP MP Kirti Azad today stood by his earlier tweet on the 'snake in the grass' suggesting an insider hand in the whole controversy.
