Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday sought to do some damage control by coming out in defence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over her help to scam-tainted Lalit Modi even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to be targeted in the ‘Modigate’ by the Congress.
Two days after the raging controversy broke out triggering a political storm for the Modi government, Mr. Jaitley, Ms. Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh met in the Home Ministry and discussed the entire issue for an hour before Mr. Singh and Mr. Jaitley held a press conference.
Charges baseless
“All allegations levelled are baseless. Her [Ms. Swaraj’s] statement and that of the party president [show] that whatever she did was with good intentions.
“She acted bona fide . The entire government and the party are one on the issue. There should be no doubt on this,” Mr. Jaitley said with Mr. Singh by his side.
Mr. Jaitley’s defence of his Cabinet colleague comes two days after party president Amit Shah and Mr. Singh had asserted that Ms. Swaraj had acted on humanitarian considerations in the matter of helping Mr. Lalit Modi, former IPL boss, get travel documents from Britain.
Mr. Modi has taken refuge in London for over five years after the Enforcement Directorate levelled money laundering and other charges against him involving an amount of Rs. 1,700 crore and wants him for investigations in India in the 2009 IPL scam.
Blame game?
Speculation has been rife over the “silence” of Mr. Jaitley after the controversy broke out on Sunday. There have been reports that the Finance Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry are involved in a blame game over who should appeal against the Delhi High Court order quashing the revocation of Mr. Modi’s passport in August last year.
