Venkaiah Naidu defends Swaraj, says she has not done anything illegal

New Delhi: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday came out in defence of his colleague Sushma Swaraj, who is embroiled in a major row over helping scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi to obtain British travel documents, saying her actions were not illegal and things done on humanitarian grounds should not be politicised.

"External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is doing a wonderful job. Nothing illegal, nothing immoral has been done. Let us not try to politicise issues, which are done on humanitarian considerations," Naidu told reporters here.

The senior minister's statement came in the wake of the opposition parties escalating its attack on the government and demanding resignation of Swaraj for "aiding and abetting" the fugitive former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

The External Affairs Minister is at the centre of a major row over helping Modi to obtain British travel documents but found strong support from the government and BJP which rejected opposition demands for her resignation over alleged "impropriety".

The genesis of the controversy was disclosure of emails showing that she had spoken to Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz and its High Commissioner here James Bevan favouring the grant of travel documents to Modi to go to Portugal, purportedly for treatment of his wife's cancer in June last year.

Modi, who is wanted in India, has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe for alleged foreign exchange regulation violations in the T20 cricket tournament held in South Africa in 2009.
The previous UPA government had revoked his passport and had pressed for his extradition.