The Opposition’s campaign against the governments at the Centre and in Rajasthan on the Lalit Modi issue gathered more support on Saturday with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Aam Admi Party demanding the resignations of the two BJP leaders named in the controversy.
Congress leaders said the Prime Minister’s silence would provide more credence to the assertion of its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, that the Union government was a suit boot ki sarkar (government for the rich). The party hopes to build a campaign against the government for being pro-rich, a tag that the Modi government has been fighting hard to shed since it first promulgated the land acquisition ordinance last December. The Opposition has rallied behind the Congress on the ordinance issue, terming the law anti-farmer. The party will continue to hit out at the Prime Minister for remaining silent on the charges against his party colleagues.
The CPI(M) and the AAP were severely critical of the Prime Minister's silence, and demanded that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje be sacked. While AAP workers staged a protest outside Ms. Swaraj’s residence, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury backed the Congress’s demand for a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation team (SIT). Apart from that, “We also demand that the External Affairs Minister and the Rajasthan Chief Minister step down till the inquiry is pending,” Mr. Yechury said.
A Congress source said the party could release details of linkages between the former IPL commissioner and Mr. Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat Chief Minister and president of the Gujarat Cricket Association. “The GCA gained immensely at the cost of Rajasthan when Lalit Modi was IPL Commissioner,” the source said.
