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Lalit Modi Named UPA Leaders He Says Tried to Help Him, Blamed Murdoch for Swaraj Leak

In a 2015 interview, Lalit Modi named three UPA-era leaders he said tried to help him obtain travel documents and accused Rupert Murdoch over the Sunday Times report about Sushma Swaraj.
From TheFinanceBase Team2 min to read
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In a June 2015 interview, former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi named Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Rajiv Shukla as UPA-era leaders who, he said, “tried very hard” to help him obtain travel documents. He also accused Rupert Murdoch of being behind a Sunday Times report about Sushma Swaraj, tying the accusation to a dispute over a Champions League T20 contract. Those were Modi’s claims, not independently established findings.

Which UPA leaders did Lalit Modi say tried to help him?

Asked by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai whether he had sought help from Rajiv Shukla, Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel to obtain travel documents between 2009 and 2013, Modi answered, “Yes, they tried very hard.” He added that the officials he named had been “helpless,” blaming what he described as the Indian government’s private office communicating with the UK. The interview records his account; it does not establish that the named leaders intervened or that the alleged obstruction occurred. India Today interview transcript

Pawar and Patel were leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, while Shukla was a Congress leader. Contemporary coverage sometimes summarized Modi’s remarks as saying the three had helped him, but the transcript’s more precise wording is that they “tried very hard.”

Why did Modi blame Rupert Murdoch for the Sunday Times report?

Modi accused Rupert Murdoch, whose company owned the Sunday Times, of being behind its report about Swaraj and his travel documents. India Today quoted him saying: “I will tell you why (British newspaper) Sunday Times is after me? Because it is owned by Rupert Murdoch,” India Today’s report.

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Modi connected the accusation to a dispute over the Champions League T20 contract. He asserted that Murdoch had wanted a way out of the arrangement and that he had refused. The reporting records Modi’s proposed motive, but does not corroborate that Murdoch directed or caused the newspaper’s report. Contemporaneous coverage

What did Sushma Swaraj say about her communication?

Swaraj said Modi contacted her because his wife was due to have cancer surgery in Portugal and he said he needed to be present to sign consent papers. She characterized her response as humanitarian and said she asked the British High Commissioner to have the UK government consider the request under British rules and regulations. India Today reproduced her statement: “Taking a humanitarian view, I conveyed to the British High Commissioner that: British government should examine the request of Lalit Modi as per British rules and regulations.” India Today’s account of Swaraj’s statement

What did contemporaneous reporting say about the travel documents?

A contemporaneous report said leaked correspondence cited Swaraj’s name in communications with Sarah Rapson, then head of UK Visas and Immigration. It also reported that Modi received travel papers less than 24 hours after British MP Keith Vaz invoked Swaraj and British High Commissioner James Bevan. That sequence is the report’s account; the underlying correspondence is not reproduced in the material cited here, so it should not be treated as independently authenticated on that basis. Contemporaneous report

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What else did Modi allege about the UPA government?

In the interview, Modi described the UPA government as acting against him and accused former finance minister P. Chidambaram of political vendetta. He also said he had sought help from UPA leaders before approaching Swaraj. These are allegations and assertions made by Modi in the interview, not established conclusions about government conduct or Chidambaram’s motive. Interview transcript Related contemporaneous coverage

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