NEW DELHI, June 18:
Congress today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “silence” on the Lalitgate, saying he should come out of his ‘meditation’ to answer if Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje helped scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi with his consent.
The opposition party stepped up demand for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and claimed that BJP veteran LK Advani too had 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.
He was referring to 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”.
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.”
Swaraj has been at the centre of the row for helping Indian “fugitive” Lalit Modi in getting British travel documents, while Raje is accused of pushing for his immigration plea.
On reports of Raje’s son’s business associations with Lalit Modi, Vadakkan claimed that the relations existed for “quite some time” and the matter needs to be investigated.
“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,” he added.
Congress’ Rajasthan unit is today staging protest seeking Raje’s resignation. Vadakkan said the decision of the party to go out on streets is a “call from the people of the state”.
“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,” he said adding the party will take up the issue legally too.
He said that the PM 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 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was talking to UK authorities on Lalit Modi’s travel documents.
“That means, there was consent of the Prime Minister (for granting travel documents to Lalit Modi)…He is liable,” he said.
Asked about reports of scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi hosting Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Rajiv Shukla too, Vadakkan said they did not hold any official post unlike Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and hence, there was no quid pro quo.
According to media reports, ex-IPL chief had hosted Tharoor, Shukla and Raje at a Mumbai hotel in 2010. Raje was Opposition Leader in Rajasthan Assembly then.
“Now it has come to fore that the then Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, who is the Chief Minister now, her bills were paid by IPL. Those who are against us will say Tharoor was there, Shukla was there, (NCP chief Sharad) Pawar was there, but they were not Leader of Opposition. In Raje’s case, it is proved there was quid pro quo,” he claimed. (PTI)
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