Updated
Korba (Chhattisgarh), Jun 15 (PTI): Congress Vice- President Rahul Gandhi today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj over the Lalit Modi controversy as he rejected her "humanitarian" ground argument and mounted a fresh attack on the NDA Government.
He targeted the Prime Minister over the controversy, saying "one Modi is standing by another Modi".
"PM Modi had promised to bring back black money to the country and deposit Rs 15 lakh in everyone’s account. Now they are supporting black money masters on humanitarian ground," he said in an apparent reference to Lalit Modi.
Asked whether Swaraj should resign, he said "absolutely". PM Modi should sack her."
He accused the Prime Minister of protecting the tainted cricket administrator and said "(Narendra) Modi is standing by (Lalit) Modi."
"Sushma Swaraj is just a minor Minister in the cabinet. Only one man is running the government. PM should stop protecting (Lalit) Modi," the Congress MP said.
Swaraj is at the centre of a raging row for helping fugitive former IPL chief Lalit Modi, based in London, who faces money laundering charges, secure documents to travel to Portugal last year.
Swaraj has said she helped Lalit on "humanitarian" ground as he wanted to travel to Portugal where his wife was undergoing medical treatment.
"If you talk about humanity, you should also help people affected by the wild elephant menace here (in Korba) on humanitarian grounds," Gandhi said.
He was talking to mediapersons at Kudmura village after interacting with villagers facing hardships due to the human-elephant conflict in the area.
Earlier, while interacting with villagers, Gandhi blamed the Centre and ruling BJP is Chhattisgarh for the man- animal conflict in the state, saying the elephant habitat is being destroyed to make way for coal mining in the name of development.
"Farmers and tribals are bearing the brunt of coal mining while elephants and other wildlife species, too, are getting displaced due to shrinking forests which serve as their habitat," the 44-year-old Amethi MP said.
"Just for the sake of a few industrialists, both the Centre and the state gave away the densely-forested Hasdeo-Arand region for mining. PM Modi call it development. What kind of development model it is?" he asked.
UK rules out probing Vaz over complaint about helping Lalit Modi
London, Jun 15 (PTI): Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz, who is embroiled in a major row involving External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over helping scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi to obtain British travel documents, will not be probed in Britain for a complaint in this regard.
Kathryn Hudson, Britain's Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has decided not to investigate the complaint against Vaz that he helped Modi get travel documents to go to Portugal, purportedly for his wife's cancer treatment in June last year.
"The Commissioner received a complaint (against Keith Vaz) last week, but has decided not to investigate into it," a spokeswoman for the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards told PTI here today.
According to British media which quoted leaked emails, Vaz cited External Affairs Minister Swaraj's name to put pressure on UK's top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Modi, who subsequently got the documents in less than 24 hours.
Vaz, 58, declined to comment today on the decision of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, saying "I am saying nothing."
After the reports surfaced, 63-year-old Swaraj said in a series of tweets that she had taken a "humanitarian view" and conveyed to the British High Commissioner that they should examine Modi's request as per their rules and "if the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi -– that will not spoil our bilateral relations".
Lawyer objects to Lalit Modi being called an offender
Mumbai, Jun 15 (PTI): Defending Lalit Modi to the hilt, his lawyer Mehmood M Abdi today took serious objecton to calling the former IPL commissioner an "offender" since no court of law has declared him so.
Lashing out at those using terms like "fugitive" and "offender" to describe Lalit Modi, he told a press meet that these were legal terms and can not be used too "loosely".
"It has to be decided by law. Which court has decided that Lalit Modi as offender and fugitive? He stays within knowledge of everyone in the United Kingdom," he said.
Stating that no blue corner notice was ever issued against Lalit Modi, he said "non-issues have been blown out of proportion."
Defending Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, he said she had done only her duty and sought to know how cold some one be blamed for intervening on humanitarian grounds.
Seeking to turn the tables on Congress, he said Lalit Modi's passport case was argued in UPA's period and hence there is no conflict of interest though the final order came after the government change (last year).
Abdi claimed that in an RTI reply received on June 2010, it was said that Dawood Ibrahim group was monitoring the movement of Lalit Modi and were also following his daughter.
In May 2010 his security was withdrawn after which he left for the UK, he said.
Earlier Report
Congress protests outside Sushma Swaraj's residence; demands resignation
New Delhi, Jun 15 (PTI): Scores of Congress workers today protested outside residence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj demanding her resignation for "extending help" to scam-tainted former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi in procuring travel documents in the UK.
Shouting slogans and holding placards, the Congress workers demanded action against Swaraj and said she must quit or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack her immediately from the Union Cabinet. The protesters also burnt effigies of Swaraj.
Congress has been attacking Swaraj since yesterday after reports surfaced that she had written to British lawmaker Keith Vaz to allegedly recommend travel documents for Lalit Modi for visiting Portugal.
Swaraj has said she had written to Vaz on "humanitarian grounds" after Lalit Modi said his wife was ill.
Modi is wanted in India and has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe in the alleged betting and misappropriation of funds in the T20 cricket tournament.
Some of the Congress protesters also broke barricades outside Swaraj's Safdarjung residence in posh Lutyens Bungalow Zone in central Delhi. Around 100 protesters were detained by the police and were later released.
Earlier in the day, Congress sharpened attack on Swaraj alleging there was "quid pro quo" involved in her "assistance" to Modi and demanded that the former IPL Commissioner be brought back and tried in India.
"There are circumstances which establish contact between Sushma Swaraj and Lalit Modi. As a quid pro quo, Sushma Swaraj has done favour to a tainted person who is accused of Rs 700 crore money laundering, tax evasion and several other charges," said Congress national spokesperson P L Punia.