Sushma, Jaitley diatribe skirted key ‘Lalitgate’ questions: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday slammed the Parliament speech of ministers Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley as “diatribe” that had failed to answer the key questions on ‘Lalitgate’ — why Lalit Modi was not asked to approach the Indian high commission for travel documents and why an appeal was not filed against the restoration of his passport.
“If the ministers think that these questions will go away, I am afraid they will not,” he said, adding Congress will keep asking these questions and expressed hope that the prime minister would “one day” answer them.
Chidambaram chided the foreign minister for blaming him for not following the UK’s advice to seek extradition of Lalit Modi instead of deportation. “Extradition was a legal trap. It is court proceedings and would have taken 10 years. In my letter, I quoted examples of people deported out of the UK and had said that they do it with Modi too,” he said.
A day after the Lok Sabha debate which saw the two heavyweight ministers counter charges on Lalitgate and blame the UPA for tardy probe against Lalit Modi, Chidambaram demanded that the government make public the letters he wrote as finance minister to the UK chancellor of the exchequer. “Why not release the letters? The letters will speak for themselves,” he said.
Chidambaram rubbished the claim that releasing the letters would compromise the probe against Lalit Modi. “The letters do not talk about the substance of the charges. How will they affect the investigations?” he asked, adding, “Why are Jaitley and Sushma selectively quoting a few words from the letters instead of releasing the full text.”
Raising the ante, he said the high commissioner or his deputy in London was present in his meetings with the chancellor and the government should release the minutes of the discussions.
He said demand for “deportation” of an Indian without passport was the best course of action. “Look at Julian Assange whose extradition has been sought. It is already four years,” he argued, referring to the US demand to the UK to turn over the Wikileaks founder.
Chidambaram recalled that the case against Lalit Modi was registered when President Pranab Mukherjee was finance minister before he took charge, stating that it could not move forward because the offender did not join the probe. He was responding to Swaraj’s charge that UPA’s steps against Lalit Modi were tardy and they posed him no threat.
“The two ministers have failed the government and the people. Instead of a debate, we got a diatribe; instead of answers, we got sermons and instead of facts, we got a fudge,” the Congress veteran summed up, adding his party would keep asking questions and seeking answers from BJP.
He poked fun at PM Narendra Modi for complimenting the two ministers for their speeches but not answering the queries asked by Congress. “He prefers to cheer from the sidelines and not enter the arena, what can I say about him,” Chidambaram said.