'Frustrated' Congress raising a 'non-issue': BJP on Sushma Swaraj row

CHENNAI: Hitting back at Congress over the Lalit Modi travel documents row, BJP today said the opposition party was "frustrated" and had shown its "complete bankruptcy" by using a "non-issue" to target External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Referring to Congress releasing photos showing Lalit Modi with Swaraj besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the picture was five years old when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and also the head of the state cricket association with Shah being his deputy in the board.

Terming as "baseless" the charges against Swaraj, he said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son and vice-president Rahul Gandhi have been clicked "practically with all coal scam accused, 2G (spectrum allocation) scam accused and Aircel-Maxis scam accused," besides those accused of CWG scam.

"They (Congress) are bereft of ideas. They want to make a non-issue an issue which will never become an issue... it shows the complete bankruptcy of Congress," Javadekar told reporters here at the airport.

"Congress has lost the plot and is frustrated because people of the ocuntry have reposed their faith in Modi Government and Congress cannot digest this," he said.

Seeking to turn the tables on Congress, Javadekar said that even its leaders had been spotted with Lalit Modi.

"We have won the faith of poor people. Congress cannot digest this. So they are levelling these charges. They are baseless charges. After Sushma ji's clarification there is no issue at all," he said.

Swaraj is in the centre of a controversy for helping Lalit Modi, who is facing charges of misappropriation of funds in IPL and currently staying in London, get documents to travel to Portugal for his wife's medical treatment.

She had reasoned that she had helped him on "humanitarian" grounds.