[Also look up: 'Sunday Story: The Lalit Modi Sarkar' at <http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-lalit-modi-sarkar/99/>.]
I/II. http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/lalit-modi-row-can-pm-narendra-modi-afford-to-abandon-his-unique-selling-point-of-strong-incorruptible-nation/ Lalit Modi row: Can PM Narendra Modi afford to abandon his unique selling point of ‘strong incorruptible nation’? June 20, 2015, 4:21 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary By Ajoy Bose The series of charges levelled against foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje may or may not involve criminality. But what has been clearly established is grave political impropriety by both BJP leaders. Even more worrisome for a prime minister and ruling party who wear their nationalist credentials on their sleeve is that both ladies appear to have been caught red-handed for trampling these under their feet. While there is much debate about the conflict of interest arising out of the links between Lalit Modi and the two BJP leaders along with their families, these are just compounding factors of a far more politically damaging offence. The fact is that both Swaraj and Raje have been found clandestinely engaging with a foreign government to help a fugitive from Indian law enforcement agencies. It is difficult to see how an ultranationalist like Narendra Modi or a jingoist outfit like the Sangh Parivar can live with this kind of revelation. In the case of Swaraj, she has admitted speaking directly to British high commissioner in New Delhi James Bevan and British MP Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, to push Lalit Modi’s case to acquire British travel documents to travel out of London. Her confession came in the curious shape of tweets a few hours after the scandal broke. She sought to justify her actions on the plea that it was merely a “humanitarian” gesture to enable Modi to travel to Portugal and “sign consent papers” for his wife’s cancer surgery there. Yet, besides the fact that no such consent was required, evidence has been mounting about the monumental impropriety of the foreign minister’s conduct. For instance, there has been pointed silence from Swaraj about why she approached British government representatives in the first place. The normal procedure should have been to ask her own ministry to arrange temporary travel documents for Lalit Modi’s trip to Portugal after getting a clearance from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Raising suspicions further, Swaraj went out of her way to keep her liaison with the British authorities dead secret, not consulting a single official in her ministry or India’s missions in Britain and Portugal, let alone concerned people in the ED. In similar fashion, Raje went to the extent of writing a covert letter of recommendation for Lalit Modi’s immigration application to Britain. “I make this statement in support of any immigration application that Lalit Modi makes, but do so on the strict condition that my assistance will not become known to the Indian authorities,” she declared. Raje may not have been chief minister when she wrote the letter four years ago. But the BJP stalwart was Opposition leader in the Rajasthan assembly, a former chief minister of the state who returned to the post again in 2013. So far, she has failed to deny outright the authenticity of the letter, an unsigned copy of which Lalit Modi’s own legal team intriguingly disclosed to the media. Such unacceptable behaviour of such senior political leaders would have made their position untenable even if there was no proven conflict of interest or murky trail of business deals and services rendered. Of course, the mounting pile of evidence exposing the proximity of Lalit Modi with the two BJP leaders and their kin has only underlined the compulsions that motivated them to take such risks. These have further driven nails in their coffins providing the Opposition and the media with damaging ammunition. The personal friendship between Lalit Modi and Swaraj and Raje, along with their families, has been wellknown for long and can hardly be held against them even after he became a fugitive from justice charged with serious economic offences. However, Swaraj or those BJP leaders who still back her can hardly justify her lawyer daughter seeking the return of Modi’s revoked passport in court when her own ministry was opposing it. Nor is there any explanation of the mysterious infusion of funds from the former cricketing czar to a loss-making dormant firm owned by Raje’s son. The controversy is threatening to unravel the prime minister’s fundamental message of making India into a strong incorruptible nation. For Narendra Modi, who invited controversy by going abroad and declaring that Indians need not be ashamed of their country any more, the nationalist plank is of paramount importance. Can he really afford to abandon his unique selling point, whatever may be the political games at play? II. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/lalit-modi-email-dirt-sent-to-govt-in-feb-law-ministry-forwarded-to-cji-last-month/99/ Lalit Modi ‘email dirt’ sent to govt in February, Law Ministry forwarded to CJI last month On May 20, the Law Ministry forwarded Neeraj Gunde’s complaint to the Principal Private Secretary of the Chief Justice of India for “action as appropriate”. File Photo- Sushma Swaraj with former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi during an IPL match in New Delhi in 2010. (Source: PTI) Written by Appu Esthose Suresh | New Delhi | Updated: June 21, 2015 9:31 am Four months before links between Lalit Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj emerged from leaked emails, the Law Ministry was aware that the former IPL chief’s online correspondence may have been breached. Also Read: Maria admits to ‘brief meeting’ with Lalit Modi Documents examined by The Sunday Express show that the ministry had received a complaint on February 11 from a self-styled whistleblower who alleged that emails purportedly sent by Modi showed a “nexus” between him and officials, including from Mumbai Police, to allegedly influence the judicial process related to a case against his rival and then BCCI chief N Srinivasan. On May 20, the Law Ministry forwarded Neeraj Gunde’s complaint to the Principal Private Secretary of the Chief Justice of India for “action as appropriate”. THE SUSHMA STORM Maria Admits To ‘Brief Meeting’ With Lalit Modi Sunday Story: The Lalit Modi Sarkar So Many IAS, IPS Officers Were Humiliated By Lalit Modi: Ashok Gehlot Congress Steps Up Attack, Alleges ‘Nexus’ Between Lalit Modi And PM Modi Lalit Modi Row: BJP Finally Steps Out To Back Vasundhara Raje, Rules Out Her Resignation Gunde alleged in his complaint that the purported emails “expose the fact” that Arup Patnaik, Mumbai’s former police commissioner, and Ranjib Biswal, who was the IPL chief last year, “brokered the deal to unseat Mr Srinivasan…” Also Read: Sunday Story: The Lalit Modi Sarkar When contacted, Patnaik, who was Mumbai’s police chief from February 2011 to August 2012, said: “I have never interacted with Lalit Modi. I know of Ranjib Biswal but he is not an acquaintance. I categorically deny having any association with Modi, leave alone the question of interceding on his behalf.” Biswal said: “I have not spoken to Modi since the time he left India in 2010. There has been no association with him whatsoever.” The purported emails cited in Gunde’s complaint do not include those related to Modi and Swaraj. On June 14, The Sunday Times cited leaked correspondence involving Modi and British MP Keith Vaz to reveal that Swaraj had helped London-based Modi obtain travel papers to visit Portugal to be with his ill wife. At the time, Modi’s Indian passport had been revoked, and he was facing a number of investigations initiated by the Enforcement Directorate. When contacted, Gunde refused to comment on the allegations in his complaint but said that “the fact that the Law Ministry had referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India proves that the ministry found my complaint warranted investigation”. Also Read: So many IAS, IPS officers were humiliated by Lalit Modi: Ashok Gehlot Law Minister Sadananda Gowda, who was in Bangalore for the Yoga Day celebrations, said he could not “recall this complaint”. “I can speak about it only once I am back in Delhi,” Gowda told The Sunday Express. This is not the first time that Gunde’s name has figured in the bitter power struggle within the BCCI over the last few years with Srinivasan on one side and a number of cricket officials, including current secretary Anurag Thakur, on the other. In May, Thakur had alleged that Gunde, whom he described as “a friend of Srinivasan”, was behind a complaint to the ICC about his alleged links with Chandigarh-based businessman Karan Gilhotra, who was on the governing body’s Anti-Corruption Unit watch list. The ICC is being headed by Srinivasan. 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