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Lalitgate debate begins in Parliament as Sushama Swaraj accepts opposition's challenge

by IBNS 12 Aug 2015, 12:47 am

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IBNS) A debate on "Lalitgate scandal" finally began in Parliament on the penultimate day of its Monsoon session on Wednesday after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj accepted the opposition's challenge calling for a discussion on the controversy that has virtually kept paralysed Parliament for more than three weeks with the Congress demanding her resignation allegedly for helping tainted cricket tycoon Lalit Modi.

Initiating the debate, Congress party's floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge ripped into the government's role in the scandal reiterating that the External Affairs Minister should step down on moral ground.

" Lalit Modi has never prioritised his wife's illness when he applied for visa. It was always mentioned as the second or third reason," Kharge said as he sought to break Swaraj's defence that whatever she had done  on "humanitarian ground" was for the sake of Modi's wife, a cancer patient who wanted to be with her husband.

Khagre alleged that Swaraj's family were lawyers in Lalit Modi case and "That's why he was protected."

" The Finance Minister also never initiated an inquiry despite knowing Lalit Modi's economic offence," he said. 

Earlier, the Congress  asked that the House to  suspend all scheduled business to discuss the charges against the External Affairs Minister, who urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to sanction the request of adjournment motion.

The Congress-led opposition has been doggedly demanding Swaraj's resignation on the ground that she helped out Lalit Modi to get travel documents in the UK.

However, the Congress demanded that the Prime Minister must be present when Swaraj makes her statement.