Trying to turn the tables on the Opposition member, Swaraj had read out Premachandran's letters to her for help to the mother of Pillai who had been in jail for 18 years for robbery and murder.
A week after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched a counter-offensive against RSP's NK Premachandran on the Lalit Modi issue, he has written an open letter to her asking seven questions on her "acts of commission and omission". The Opposition member took on Swaraj for drawing parallels with his petition to her seeking government's intervention in the case of Madhavan Pillai, who was serving a life sentence in Oman.
Premachandran was in Swaraj's line of fire in Lok Sabha after he demanded her resignation quoting an article in the Constitution to say that it was binding on ministers to discharge official duties without "fear or favour" and "without ill-will or affection".
Trying to turn the tables on the Opposition member, Swaraj had read out Premachandran's letters to her for help to the mother of Pillai who had been in jail for 18 years for robbery and murder.
In his open letter written to Swaraj on Thursday, the MP from Kollam, Kerala, drew "distinctions" between the two cases and said that while his request was on record as a plea to the government, she had "interceded at the behest of a fugitive from Indian law".
One of the questions he has posed before her was why the procedure complied by her office in the case of Pillai was not followed in the case of Lalit Modi. He said as a cabinet minister her "indiscretion was unconscionable and cannot be countenanced, particularly in the light of reports of immediate family members being recipients of direct favours from his person".
He also asked if it was for a cabinet minister to mediate with a foreign national to facilitate "favours as opposed to humanitarian gesture for a fugitive", whether it had endorsement of the union government and if the Centre had authorised the minister to intercede on behalf of Lalit Modi if the Prime Minister had put stamp of authority on it.
"If indeed the Prime Minister has approved the intervention, why is he so ominously silent on the entire episode?" he asked.
Premachandran asked Swaraj if the intervention was a direct result of a "quid pro-quo ties maintained by the minister and family" with Lalit Modi. "Finally, does it not rankle and fester in your conscience that you had described an Indian citizen Pillai as a hardened criminal in Lok Sabha... when his mother and wife plead for compassion and mercy?" he asked.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Sushma Swaraj")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}