CPI demands resignation of Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje

NEW DELHI: CPI today demanded the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on 'Lalitgate' issue failing which Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack them.

Party MP D Raja said the prime minister should also break his "studied" silence on the issue as the episode involving the two BJP leaders help to the tainted former IPL Commissioner has exposed the claims of BJP that it gave scam-free governance in the last one year.

He said the help given by the two leaders was a "brazen" act of "grave impropriety" and against law as he was a "fugitive" from the law facing serious charges including money laundering.

Raja, who had raised questions in Rajya Sabha as early as 2010 on issues relating to the running of the BCCI affairs, said the cricket was not accountable to anyone, more so to the sports ministry.

The game of cricket has been made a money-spinning machinery which was a kind of crony capitalism in which politicians cutting across the line, celebrities from sports and film world and other sectors have joined to sully the sport, he said.