Sushma not original target, says source-in-the-know
June 17, 2015 15:39
A source who is privy to the unfolding Modigate scandal says that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was not the original target of the people who passed on all the documents to Sunday Times, London, and Times Now TV channel, reports a correspondent.
"Wait for a couple of days for the match-fixing angle to emerge. The story will then take a turn and match-fixing will dominate the public space," the source said. He implied that the scam-tainted former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has agreed to give interviews to Indian TV channels to prepare the ground for the expected brouhaha.
However, a BJP leader says confidently, in an off-the-record conversation, that even if the concerned TV channel comes out with "expose number 250' Sushma Swaraj will not resign because she has done nothing illegal or anything that violates Indian law. Her act does not need her to quit her post.
However, this "legal versus moral" dilemma has divided people vertically. When Rediff.com asked many scholars and editors "what was the exact help Sushma rendered to Lalit Modi that can be dubbed as a crime and a violation of Indian law and if so, which law?" they all essentially said that "conflict of interest" is a deeply moral issue, not a legal one.
A senior editor, who was once close to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, said, "There is no legal issue here for Sushma. But, there is a difference between "law" and "propriety" -- but then, in India, who cares for propriety! Even Dr Singh sometimes did not bother about it."
Most analysts quoted in off the record conversations the case of Sonia Gandhi during UPA's rule when her government ensured that Ottavio Quattrochi was allowed to escape the long arm of Indian law, with no one able to directly link her to him.
A senior journalist, who has seen the working of the previous government from up close, said, "The real issue is incompetence in handling the situation. The Modi government does not seem to have any control over the media and the message -- contrary to the image that they control everything! The government's media management has been a disaster."
Another scholar, who runs a think-tank, said, "Sushma's case is not about a legal issue; it is a moral call whether you help someone who is wanted in India get travel documents; her mistake was to not disclose that. I don't think this requires her resignation, but the BJP is reaping what it sowed. And the real question is, the relationship of ALL politicians on cricketing boards, with corruption. Sushmaji is way innocent by comparison."
Many editors claim the Modi government is failing to understand "that propriety cannot be bound by legal boundaries. Lalit Modi is a fugitive from Indian law and the Indian government is fighting cases against him and he is running away to another country to save himself. We do not have a law defining conflict of interest, but that does not mean it is not to be considered."
A TV anchor who is always hard on the National Democratic Alliance says, "Is it anybody's case that she broke the law? There are dozens of cases of ministers having to resign for impropriety, not for breaking a law. Madhavsinh Solanki, for instance, Shashi Tharoor, even K Natwar Singh was found to have not broken any law! And dozens more, about which the BJP had made a hue and cry over, and in most cases rightly so."
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