What happens to India's request for Lalit Modi's repatriation?

Even as the government has solidly backed external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in the wake of Opposition baying for her blood for helping the absconding former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi to obtain UK travel papers, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) is at a loss to understand whether to pursue the case of his repatriation with the British government.

While everybody in the ministry agrees that she has been a rare minister, with a clear grasp of issues, who neither berates bureaucrats nor puts them down even in times of stress, they are shocked at her giving a miss to her own political instincts. "Instead of nudging the British government to issue travel papers, she could have very well asked her own high commission in London to issue Portugal specific papers to Modi to allow him to attend his ailing wife on humanitarian grounds," a senior government official told dna.

The officials hastened to add that calling it a scam was an exaggeration, but yes the external affairs minister has been guilty of impropriety and working against a set protocol. Interestingly, her ministry is also custodian of official protocol.

MEA officials say after many years they had found a capable and competent minister taking international interactions to the desired conclusion and knowing almost all MEA officials by name. But despite all her abilities, officials say, they are puzzled to understand why she chose to get embroiled in an avoidable controversy. Since 2012, the ministry of external affairs has been asking their British counterparts to help them trace and repatriate Lalit Modi, who had fled to London in 2010. A note sent to the British foreign office in 2012 said that Modi was wanted in a case involving violation of foreign exchange laws. It further informed the British government that his (Modi's) passport had been impounded and that any diplomatic help he received could "adversely impact" India's relations with the UK. Officials privy to the note said it was drafted under the instructions of ministry of finance, whose Enforcement Directorate is pursuing the case.

While Swaraj's tweets confirm that she had clarified to the UK that its award of travel papers to Modi would not hurt India's relations with Britain, officials say, they have no idea, whether the 2012 note to the British government now stands overturned. Sushma tweeted that she told the UK high commissioner in New Delhi that "if the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi, that will not spoil our bilateral relations".

The "humanitarian" aspect of the incident involves Modi's wife, ailing from cancer. According to Sushma, Modi had contacted her in July 2014 -- less than two months after the NDA came to power at the Centre -- to tell her that the British government would not give him travel papers if India did not lift its objection. On June 26, 2014, British Labour MP Keith Vaz had written to Sarah Rapson, director of UK Visas and Immigration Department and to Lisa Killham, a senior home office official, asking for travel documents for Modi. But Killham wrote back expressing her inability, and on July 3, he was informed that the application has been rejected. But later on August 1, 2014, the documents are issued after Swaraj nudging.

According to protocol, Sushma should have asked Modi to route his concerns through the Indian high commission, headed by former foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai. "She could have asked Mathai to issue him country-specific travel papers on humanitarian grounds — to accompany his wife to undergo cancer treatment," officials said. It is believed that her communication directly with the British government sidestepping the Indian high commission had angered Mathai.

Instead of contacting her own envoy or those in the know of things in the ministry, Swaraj says in her tweet, she conveyed to the British high commissioner in New Delhi (James Bevan) the change in India's posture. It is also not clear whether she had contacted the ministry of finance or the Enforcement Directorate.

Even Dawood and Win Chadha's requests were granted

In 1984, Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in a murder case in Mumbai approached Indian mission in Dubai for renewal of his passport. Despite opposition from the consul (visa and passports), SP Srivastava, opposing the renewal, the passport was granted. Dawood had taken refuge in Ajman. The don allegedly acquired a Belize passport later.

2. In 2000, Win Chadha, the agent of Bofors wanted in the case, was given travel documents on humanitarian ground to return to India. He later died in 2001. His passport had been confiscated, and was living in Dubai