Lamo controversy

All that you had to read between this week’s headlines.

Q: What makes Lalit Modi (LaMo) so powerful that he can threaten a Cabinet minister and a Chief Minister?

He has been aptly described as a man who knows how to dispense favours and call in markers. Take a look at the way he “distributed” IPL teams amongst his rich and powerful friends. In fact, when the going got tough, it was a well connected industrialist and a UPA Cabinet minister who tipped him off to flee the country in 2010, otherwise he would be hauled up for financial irregularities and for leaking sensitive shareholding information while as Chairman IPL.

Q: What is the LaMo-Raje connection?

Lalit Modi pretty much ran the Rajasthan government during Vasundhara Raje’s earlier stint as Chief Minister (2003-2008). Although he stayed in Mumbai, he was a regular visitor at Jaipur’s Rambagh Palace hotel suite and it was a well-known fact that this is where most of the work for the state government got cleared. Hence the sobriquet, Super Chief Minister. As Raje herself has said, she has close family ties with both Lalit Modi and his wife Minal. And during Raje’s son Dushyant’s wedding, LaMo let it be known in his own ostentatious way, that he was the chief organiser. Subtlety and humility are not his calling cards. In turn, Raje helped LaMo achieve his ambition to step into the world of cricket — she tweaked the sports Bill to facilitate his entry into the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) in 2005.

Q: Why did Lalit Modi drag in Vasundhara Raje in the current controversy?

This was not political, it was personal. Moreover, one theory is he did it to save Sushma — by exposing someone who was implicated much more deeply than the current foreign minister.

Q: Why did Lalit Modi give only one interview and then shut up?

He claims that it was his lawyers who advised him against it. But a more credible answer is that he has been told to shut up by someone more powerful, and someone whom he does not have on his retainer. Plus, he made some serious faux pas. For instance, Sushma Swaraj had all along been claiming that her intervention was on humanitarian grounds and the fact that her husband and daughter were LaMo’s lawyers had nothing to do with her decision. But during his interview, LaMo gave the game away, saying his equation with the Swaraj family was purely “personal’ and not professional. So maybe the gag order was justified.

Q: So will Raje be sacked?

Well, she may be saved by a chartered accountant’s logic. The BJP is now claiming that all the monetary transactions between Lalit Modi and Raje’s son Dushyant Singh were much before she was asked to sign the witness statement for his British residency. So, in the words of a party spokesperson, “for quid pro quo to work, the favour is usually granted first and the benefit follows soon after. In this case, the benefit, if any, happened much before Lalit Modi became a fugitive and needed Raje’s help.” Bizarre as it is, the BJP seems to be pleading that even Raje helped LaMo on humanitarian grounds.

Q: Did Raje sign the witness statement for his British residency?

Lalit Modi says “yes”; Vasundhara Raje says “no”; but her body language says “maybe”.