Sack Sushma, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for “helping” former IPL chief Lalit Modi who is the “symbol of black money”.

Rahul  said that the decision to facilitate Lalit Modi’s travel to Portugal had “tacit approval” of the prime minister and sought an explanation from him but stopped short of demanding his resignation.

Displaying unusual aggression, Rahul accused Narendra Modi of “standing by another Modi” who was a “master of black money”. He also reminded the Prime Minister that he had “promised to get back”   black money within 100 days of coming to power.

“Sushma Swaraj is just a minor minister in the Cabinet. Only one man is running the government. The Prime Minister should stop protecting (Lalit) Modi,” Rahul told reporters in Korba in Chhatisgarh.

At the AICC briefing, chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded examination of the Prime Minister’s conduct in the entire controversy involving facilitation of Lalit Modi’s travel to Portugal on “humanitarian” grounds.

“Was the External Affairs Minister acting at the instance of the Prime Minister? Was the Prime Minister helping a money launderer? If these facts are correct, then the Prime Minister has lost the moral right to continue in office,” Surjewala said. He, however, added this was subject to verification of the charges levelled by the Congress.
“We are not demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation. Let him (PM) first give an explanation to the nation. The Prime Minister, who tweets on every other issue, has adopted a studied silence,” he said.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar dubbed Rahul’s allegations as “senseless”. “I do not want to respond to such senseless statements,” he said.

Surjewala said the “incontrovertible facts, documents and details” of the ‘Modigate’ emerging since Sunday clearly reflected active complicity of not only the External Affairs Minister but also pointed towards the entire BJP government aiding and abetting a fugitive with tacit approval of the Prime Minister.

He alleged Sushma had overturned existing government communications to a foreign country. “These communications of the previous UPA government not only denied travel documents to Modi but also sought his arrest to hold him accountable to law and repatriate black money laundered by him,” Surjewala said.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram also asked the government to release the letters written to the UK Chancellor on the Lalit Modi case.