External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said a Congress leader had pressed her to give diplomatic passport to coal scam accused Santosh Bagrodia.
A senior Congress leader was pressing me hard to give diplomatic passport to the Coal Scam accused Santosh Bagrodia. >@ANI_news
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) >July 22, 2015
The development comes a day after she had offered to give a statement in Parliament about Congress’ allegations over her links with former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
She also said she will disclose the name of the Congress leader in Parliament.
I will disclose name of the leader on the floor of the House. >@imTejasBarot
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) >July 22, 2015Congress had demanded her resignation, even after she had offered to give a statement in the house.
Mr. Bagrodia, who is a former Minister of State for Coal, was on Tuesday summoned as accused by a Special Court in a coal scam case pertaining to allocation of Maharashtra’s Bander coal block to AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd.
Highlights: day 1 of monsoon session of Parliament
| 1 | Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day, following uproar over the Lalit Modi issue. |
| 2 | Government said it is not formulating any policy for implementing ‘One Rank One Pension Scheme’ for paramilitary forces. |
| 3 | Congress members forced three adjournments in the pre-lunch session making both Question Hour and Zero Hour a casualty, even as Leader of the House Arun Jaitley offered an immediate discussion and said Ms. Swaraj could make a statement on the issue. |
| 4 | BJP’s national spokesman M.J. Akbar, who won the Rajya Sabha bypolls from Jharkhand earlier this month, took oath as a Rajya Sabha Member. |
| 5 | Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after obituary references. It paid tributes to a sitting member and 13 former MPs who died in the recent past on the first day of the Monsoon session |
| 6 | Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also informed the House that TRS member from Warangal in Telangana Kadiyam Srihari had resigned on June 11 and she has accepted his resignation. |
| 7 | I hope that promises made by some political parties during the last session to help good decisions in this session will be kept, Mr. Modi said ahead of the session. |
| 8 | Mr. Modi stepped in to face an adamant Congress that had said it would not permit Parliament to function unless BJP leaders facing allegations from impropriety to corruption, quit. |
| 9 | Countering Congress’ attack, the BJP said it was ready for discussion on all issues, including the the “scams” in Congress-ruled States. “This is nothing more than the noise of skeletons of Congress’ corruption. We are ready to discuss pending issues from ‘damaad’ to Quattrocchi,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said referring to the controversial land deals of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and the Bofors scam. |
| 10 | Mr. Jaitley said: "We think they are not ready to speak, we can have discussions post 2 p.m. I even proposed Sushma Swaraj will participate or even give a statement first. The Opposition wants to disrupt the House. We are ready for discussion in any form at any time." |
