Never Recommended Travel Document For Modi: Sushma

25 July, New Delhi

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Saturday said that she never recommended travel document for former IPL boss Lalit Modi.

In a post on the microblogging website Twitter, Ms Swaraj said,”I am saying this time and again that I never requested or recommended travel documents for Lalit Modi.”

Her tweets came as the first week of the Monsoon session was washed out due to the Opposition demand for her resignation, for allegedly facilitating Lalit Modi’s travel to Portugal.

In today’s tweet, she said she left it to the UK Government to decided on Modi’s travel application, as per their own laws.

”As a Minister, I am accountable to Parliament. That is the only forum to inform the nation.

”I help people everyday. That too on a single tweet,” she said.

The External Affairs Minister also sought to point out that she accepted a debate on the very first day of the Monsoon session of Parliament, but Congress was not ready.

The disclosure by the Sunday Times of London that Ms Swaraj had used her goos offices to make the British agree to issuing travel document to Modi, who is wanted in India in several cases of economic offence, had last month created a political storm, that put the ruling NDA government in a spot.

Later, revelation by Modi’s lawyers that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje too helped him in his immigration to the UK, lead to further embarssment of the Government, provoking the Opposition to demand their immediate resignation.

Ms Swaraj had explained her act by saying that she did what she did on humanitarian ground as Modi wanted to visit his wife in Portugal.