Lalit Modi row: What would Sonia have done, asks Sushma Swaraj
Ms Swaraj termed the Opposition allegations against her “false and baseless”
New Delhi: With the Opposition largely absent in the Lok Sabha, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday tried to wriggle out of the controversy over her having allegedly helped Lalit Modi to obtain UK travel papers.
In an emotion-laced statement, Ms Swaraj sought to ask what Congress president Sonia Gandhi would have done if she was in her position and faced the situation of an Indian woman facing a life-and-death question.
Ms Swaraj termed the Opposition allegations against her “false and baseless”, and went on to say: “I neither recommended nor requested the British authorities to grant travel papers to Mr Modi.
After the recurrence of cancer on 10th occasion of his wife, which necessitated urgent medical attention, I merely made an oral clarification to the British authorities that if they were to grant the travel paper to Mr Modi, there would be no adverse effect on bilateral ties.”
The external affairs minister said she did not help Mr Modi to get travel papers, but only his wife. She also challenged the Opposition to produce “even one document, one chit or email to back their allegations”.