Controversy Over Sushma Swaraj and Lalit Modi: Explained

BENGALURU: The ‘Breaking News’ on 13th June, 2015 led to the now famous Sushma-Lalit Modi row that gave a spark to the opposition to demand for her resignation. Whereas on the other hand, BJP rejects the opposition demands and stood by her saying Sushma wrote to the British lawmaker Keith Vaz to allow Lalit to visit Portugal only on humanitarian grounds.

Here is a brief backdrop of what led to today’s controversy, given by oneindia:

Lalit Modi who was the commissioner of IPL, flouted the rules on foreign exchange regulations, claimed that he faces death threats in India.

He has been avoiding investigations since then and hence the UPA government revoked his passport and pushed for his extradition. The then UPA government also told British government that India-UK relations would get affected if the latter help Modi.

This is what Modi had done to travel outside UK

As his passport was revoked by UPA, Modi could not travel outside UK. Therefore he sought a travel document to be allowed to visit Portugal for his wife’s surgery, who is suffering from breast cancer.

How did Sushma Swaraj come into picture?

Sushma Swaraj contacted Keith Vaz, and India-origin British MP, and this e-mail chain was leaked by a TV news channel. Reportedly, Swaraj told Vaz to follow the rules and regulations and that offering travel documents to Modi would not affect India-UK relations. Within 24 hours of this conversation, Vaz sanctioned travel documents to Modi to visit Portugal. Allegedly, Vaz also offered to help Swaraj’s nephew Jyotirmayi Kaushal to apply for a Britsh law degree course.

However the center justifies Sushma Swaraj’s act, saying her decision was based on humanitarian grounds while on the other had opposition continues to accuse Sushma. The issue gets a lot more interesting as Swaraj’s daughter is the current lawyer appearing for Lalit Modi and here arises the conflict of interest.

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