The Congress on Thursday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “silence” over the Lalit Modi visa controversy. The party asked the Prime Minister tp come out of his ‘meditation’ to answer if External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje helped scam-tainted former IPL chief with his consent. It stepped up its demand of resignation of Ms. Swaraj and Ms. Raje.
The Congress claimed that veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani too expressed no confidence in the leadership of the Prime Minister.
“Advaniji has obviously said he is not sure about the leadership. He has expressed no confidence in the leadership of the Prime Minister. The ball is in the court of the Prime Minister,” Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said.
Mr. Vadakkan was referring to Mr. Advani’s remarks on the possibility of a repeat of Emergency that he “doesn’t have faith in today’s political leadership due to its weaknesses.”
Mr. Vadakkan said, “The Prime Minister must answer whether the Chief Minister acted the way she did with his consent.Whether the External Affairs Minister did what she did with his consent? Are there other people involved; the Prime Minister must come clean? He must come out of his political vipassana.”
Ms. Swaraj has been at the centre of the row for allegedly helping Mr. Lalit Modi in getting British travel documents, while Ms. Raje is accused of pushing for his immigration plea.
On reports of Ms. Raje’s son’s business associations with Mr. Lalit Modi, Mr. Vadakkan claimed that the relations existed for “quite some time” and the matter needed to be investigated.
Mr. Vadakkan said, “Chhota [Lalit] Modi used to run Rajasthan. This is a reality. If Chhota Modi was running Rajasthan and now the Bada [Narendra] Modi is at the Centre, it is time that the nation should know what are the realities today.”
On the Congress’s Rajasthan unit staging a protest seeking Ms. Raje’s resignation, he observed that the decision of the party to go out on streets was a “call from the people of the State.” He said, “We are not doing it on our reckoning. We have realised that’s our duty to remove a corrupt Chief Minister from Rajasthan. We will take the matter to logical end. The Chief Minister must step down immediately.” The party would take up the issue legally too.
Mr. Vadakkan alleged that the Prime Minister was aware of every move of his ministers.“One minister, what he or she eats, drinks, where they go. The Prime Minister knows everything. But he is unaware when the External Affairs Minister was talking to the U.K. authorities on Mr. Lalit Modi’s travel documents. That means, there was consent of the Prime Minister [for granting travel documents to Mr. Lalit Modi]...he is liable,” he said.
Asked about reports of Mr. Lalit Modi hosting Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Rajiv Shukla, Mr. Vadakkan said they did not hold any official post unlike Ms. Raje and hence, there was no quid pro quo.
The media reports said ex-IPL chief hosted Mr. Tharoor, Mr. Shukla and Ms. Raje at a Mumbai hotel in 2010. Ms. Raje was then the Opposition leader in the Rajasthan Assembly.
“Now it has come to fore that the bills of then Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan, who is the Chief Minister now, were paid by IPL. Those who are against us will say Mr. Tharoor was there, Mr. Shukla was there, [NCP chief Sharad] Pawar was there, but they were not Leader of Opposition. In Ms. Raje’s case, it is proved there was quid pro quo,” Mr. Vadakkan claimed.
