Tainted must quit

Advani calls for probity in public life

New Delhi: In light of senior BJP leader LK Advani emphasising the need for probity in public life, Opposition parties on Sunday said that Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje must “own up responsibility” in the Lalit Modi controversy.

“It is a very clear indication from the senior-most leader of the BJP that its ministers, when they are implicated, when there are allegations against them, should own up the responsibility. “The Prime Minister should come out with a clear explanation. Nothing is happening. It is in this context that he [Advani] has given this opinion. So, I think that Advaniji’s opinion is the reflection of thinking in general of the people,” opine Opposition leaders.

Earlier giving an interview to the Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, Advani, at a time when two Union ministers and the Rajasthan CM are facing charges of conflict of interest and impropriety, was reported to have said that political credibility was essential, and politicians must live up to the trust placed in them by voters.

In a veiled message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over the controversy involving Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje, Advani has called for maintaining probity in public life while recalling how he quit after his name cropped up in the hawala scam.

The senior BJP leader though did not want to comment on the controversy over alleged help to former IPL boss Lalit Modi by the BJP leaders. "I am far away from all this today. So I don't have anything to comment. I am not in the decision making and so I have no comments to offer in the matter," Advani was quoted as saying.

Advani’s remarks provided fresh ammunition to the opposition Congress, which has been pushing for the resignation of external affairs minister Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Raje over their efforts to help disgraced former IPL chief Lalit Modi. "Protecting the people’s trust is the biggest responsibility in a political leader’s life. What morality demands, that is 'rajdharma'," Advani was quoted.

Referring to former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who resigned after facing graft charges, he said: "Since the Jan Sangh era...even before that in RSS shakhas, we were taught honesty is the best virtue.

There should be no compromise on corruption." Swaraj and Raje are embroiled in a controversy over extending help to Lalit Modi in connection with his travel documents and an immigration appeal in Britain, triggering demands by the Congress for their resignation. The BJP has stood by them and said there is no need for them to quit.

Reacting to Advani's remarks, Congress leader Rashid Alvi said he was showing the way to the BJP and the Prime Minister that those who are "tainted" should be made to resign, irrespective of whether it is Raje or Swaraj or anyone else. Advani pointed out that he quit as an MP on his own in 1996 after he was linked to the hawala scam.

“The day allegations were raised against me based on Jain diaries, that evening itself, sitting in my house in Pandara Road, I took the decision to resign (as an MP). It was no one else's decision, it was mine. Soon after, I called up (Atal Bihari) Vajapyee to inform him about my decision.

He asked me not to resign but I did not listen to anyone," the former deputy prime minister was quoted as saying by the online edition of the daily. "People vote for us in elections. So commitment to the people is most important." Asked whether resignations should be the norm when politicians face serious charges, Advani said: "I can tell about myself.

What others will do, what's their issues, what their problems are, I don't know. And I don't want to comment on these." The hawala scam involved payments allegedly received by politicians through four brokers. The scandal implicated several leading politicians.