In fresh trouble for the government, two cases of conflict of interest involving External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi have been discovered.
CNN-IBN has accessed an email dated April 15, 2015, sent by Lalit Modi to the company secretary of Indofil. Lalit Modi is on the Board of Directors of Indofil which is headed by his father KK Modi. The former IPL czar sought the appointment of Sushma Swaraj's husband Swaraj Kaushal as the alternate director of the company. The letter was subsequently withdrawn on April 23.
In the second case, CNN-IBN has discovered that Swaraj Kaushal and Sushma Swaraj's daughter Swaraj Bansuri are both legal counsels for Lalit Modi, and live with the External Affairs Minister.
Reacting to the development, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying the party was "trying to defend the indefensible". Terming the development as a prime facie case of "conflict of interest", Karat asserted that Swaraj must step down as the Minister for External Affairs.
The Congress also used the opportunity to step up the attack on Swaraj, with party leader Priyanka Chaturvedi demanding an investigation in the case which was "a clear case of quid pro quo".
The BJP, however, continued to brazenly defend the External Affairs Minister, denying any possibility of "conflict of interest" in the case. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said that the opposition had no other issue and it was, therefore, resorting to such acts to falsely target the NDA government.
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