New Delhi: Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Parliament on Thursday that she extended no favours to former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
“Present one note, letter or email that shows I asked the UK government to present Lalit Modi with travel papers,” Sushma said, as she addressed the Lok Sabha on Lalit Modi controversy.
“All allegations against me are false. For two weeks, there has been a misinformation campaign against me,” she said, adding, “Almost three weeks are up and I don’t see any chance of a debate. This is injustice if I’m not allowed to explain myself,” she said.
Swaraj said that her intervention with UK officials to permit that trip was extended on “humanitarian grounds.” Lalit Modi was allowed to accompany his wife to Portugal for her medical treatment.
“If Sonia Gandhi had been in my place, would she have left a woman cancer patient to die? This is humanitarianism and not a case of helping Lalit Modi,” said an assertive Sushma Swaraj. “If helping a woman cancer patient is a crime, then I admit having committed this crime and am ready to face any punishment from this House for it,” she said.
The genesis of the controversy was disclosure of emails showing that she had spoken to Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz and its High Commissioner James Bevan favouring the grant of travel documents to Lalit Modi, who is wanted in India and has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe in this for alleged betting and misappropriation of funds in the T20 cricket tournament.
According to British media, which quoted leaked emails, Vaz cited Swaraj’s name to put pressure on UK’s top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Lalit Modi, who subsequently got the documents in less than 24 hours.
Vaz also offered to help Swaraj’s nephew Jyotirmay Kaushal to apply for a British law degree course, the report said.
After the reports surfaced, 63-year-old Swaraj said in a series of tweets that she had taken a “humanitarian view” and conveyed to the British High Commissioner that they should examine Modi’s request as per their rules and “if the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi that will not spoil our bilateral relations”.