Youth Congress seeks Sushma’s resignation

Members of the district unit of the Youth Congress staged a dharna in front of the Clock Tower here on Thursday demanding the resignation of Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj for helping the former Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi.

Janardhan Bhandarkar, Congress leader, said the IPL under Mr. Lalit Modi had been a den of corruption. There was match fixing, betting and money laundering. Yet it was surprising that Ms. Swaraj chose to request the U.K. government to help Mr. Lalit Modi. The claim of Ms. Swaraj that she helped him on humanitarian grounds was hollow. There were close connection between Mr. Lalit Modi and Ms. Swaraj and her husband Swaraj Kaushal.

It was not just Ms. Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje too had helped Mr. Lalit Modi and her son Dushyant Singh was the beneficiary. The BJP had come to the power at the Centre promising good governance. It promised to bring back black money. But money laundering activities promoted black money, they said.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not spoken a word on the controversy. His claims of providing good governance are hollow,” he said.

Amrit Shenoy, Congress leader, said that when Ms. Swaraj was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, she had demanded the resignations of Ministers of United Progressive Alliance on moral grounds. But the same moral grounds did not apply to her though her help to Mr. Lalit Modi was the highest form of impropriety.

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The BJP and its mentor organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had all thrown their weight behind Ms. Swaraj even as the controversy had grown wider and had now tainted Ms. Raje, they added.