Sushma-Modi controversy: Here's how hubby Kaushal, daughter Bansuri became political kryptonite for Swaraj

The controversy surrounding Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helping controversial former commissioner of the Indian Premier League Lalit Modi on “humanitarian” grounds has raised more questions than it has answered. While the Opposition is up in arms and have cried themselves hoarse demanding Swaraj’s resignation, the Union Minister has maintained silence since her clarification on Twitter where she admitted that Modi was allowed to travel on humanitarian grounds. Interestingly, reports signal towards the fact Sushma was linked to Lalit Modi on a more personal level busting her claim that the travel documents were issued on humanitarian grounds. While Sushma’s daughter, Bansuri Swaraj – a law graduate from the Oxford University and a barrister at law from Inner Temple in UK – represented Modi for seven years, the Union Minister’s husband Swaraj Kaushal gave legal counsel to the disgraced sports administrator’s for 22 years, an NDTV report pointed out. For almost four years now, Modi has been away from India in relation to an Enforcement Directorate case for allegedly violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Lalit Modi came to London in 2010 as allegations of match-fixing and illegal betting related to IPL cricket tournament emerged. His Indian passport was revoked by the government in March 2011, but it was restored by the Delhi High Court in August last year. Modi has denied any wrongdoing and says he left India for Britain because of death threats. [caption id=“attachment_2295976” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. PTI[/caption] Bansuri, who in 2012 was assisting UU Lalit, a Supreme Court judge, had appeared for Modi on several occasions. A report in The Indian Express noted that on every crucial judgement in Modi’s case (for which Solicitor General and Attorney General Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi respectively appeared for him), Bansuri was present in the court. In January 2013 when a bench dismissed Lalit Modi’s appeal for passport revocation order based on ED’s fears of protecting the economic interest of the country, Bansuri was by Modi’s side and appeared on his behalf, the court judgement had recorded. Mukul Rohatgi, now Attorney General, appeared for him on this date. On 5 March 2013, senior advocate Harish Salve had replaced Rohatgi to appear with Modi. But the judgement recorded Bansuri’s appearance again. On 27 August, 2014, when a division bench set aside the order revoking the passport and noted that “ED should have accepted Modi’s request for interrogation through videoconferencing instead of physical questioning.” As Sandipan Sharma notes in this Firspost article, normally the government files an appeal in the Supreme Court against decisions that are overturned by a division bench of the high court. But in this case, no appeal was filed and his passport was given back to him. The judgement recorded Bansuri’s appearance again on behalf of Modi. The IE report also pointed out that Sushma must have written to British lawmaker Keith Vaz recommending travel documents for Modi while the judgement on his appeal was reserved by the High Court. A criminal lawyer at the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, Bansuri’s presence at every crucial hearing in the passport case of Modi cannot be a mere coincidence. Especially when another family member of the Swaraj family was equally close to Modi. Swaraj Kaushal, the husband of Sushma Swaraj, also found himself in the limelight as reports surfaced that there was a bit of a quid-pro-quo situation between Kaushal and Modi. According to a report in The Huffington Post, Kaushal had taken Modi’s help to get his nephew secure admission at Sussex University in the UK. For a minister like Sushma Swaraj, who has hardly been hardly embroiled in any scam so far, her husband and daughter’s close connection with controversial and tainted Modi might only make things worse for her. As this Economic Times article said Kaushal was known to be one of those guys in the political circles who does not shy away from pulling a few strings to get things done. ET report, which dubbed Kaushal as Sushma’s “Achilles heel”, also said that this was not the first controversy that one time Governor of Mizoram (1990) has been linked to. [caption id=“attachment_2295982” align=“alignright” width=“380” class=” “]  Screengrab from Twitter.[/caption] Kaushal’s links with Sudhanshu Mittal, a businessman-politician and late Pramod Mahajan’s right-hand man, have often been criticised. In 1979, according to the ET, Kaushal helped a Mizo leader in a conspiracy case. Sharma, in his article, also noted that Lalit Modi’s case took a positive turn after the BJP came to power or “it may even be a case of Modi’s friends returning some of his favours, quid pro quo verging on impropriety.” Sushma’s ties with Narendra Modi have been cordial for almost all public appearances but one cannot forget the bitter past during the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. _Firstpost_ in this article pointed out that this controversy has given rise to many conspiracy theories, and one of them is “Swaraj may be the victim of a internal feud in the BJP that has remained unresolved since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. AAP’s Ashutosh and RJD’s Manoj Jha were among those to hint that Swaraj was taken down by her own, with Ashutosh tweeting, “Question is first @BJPRajnathSingh in son row/now @SushmaSwaraj in Lalit row? Coincidence or game plan to fix opponents of Modi in BJP?”