In a weekly meeting of the BJP’s parliamentary party on Wednesday, the party brass encouraged MPs to counter the “Congress propaganda” with equal force. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave a detailed presentation meant to demolish the accusations against her with regard to assistance she allegedly rendered to the former IPL chief and controversial businessman Lalit Modi.
The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who reportedly made a brief intervention asking the MPs to be present in Parliament in “full force” to contest the Congress’ claims with regard to Vyapam and Lalitgate. The MPs were told that they have no cause to be on the back foot and should rather be “proud of the good work” being done in the BJP-ruled States. BJP President Amit Shah stressed that all BJP-ruled States are “doing good work with honesty”.
In the context of veteran MP Shanta Kumar’s public outburst against the spate of scandals confronting the BJP, the MPs were asked to exercise restraint and not speak out of turn.
Two booklets, one titled
Sushma’s claim The most detailed intervention was made by the the External Affairs Minister who reportedly told the MPs that she offered no help to the former IPL boss.
“I offered neither any financial benefit to him nor did I help him flee India. I never told the British Government to give him travel documents. All I did was to tell that their decision (with regard to Modi) will not affect their ties with India,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said quoting Swaraj.
“The Congress is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Here, there is not even a molehill,” Swaraj is believed to have said. She also said that she had rejected pressure from senior Congress leaders to give diplomatic passport to coal-scam accused Santosh Bagrodia.