I knew nothing about this: Former foreign secy Sujatha Singh on Sushma-Lalit Modi row

Singh, who was foreign secretary between July 2013 and January 2015, was asked to quit by the NDA government five months before her stint was supposed to end.

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Sujata Singh, who was foreign secretary between July 2013 and January 2015, was asked to quit by the NDA government five months before her stint was supposed to end.

Sujatha Singh, who was foreign secretary at the time Lalit Modi got his travel documents, has said that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not consult her on the issue.

Asked whether she was consulted by Swaraj, Singh told The Indian Express, “I knew nothing about this… Zero… I have nothing more to say.”

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This assumes significance given that the foreign secretary looks after the UK, among other countries. Sources said she should have been the first person to be consulted on an issue of such “sensitive nature”.

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Singh, who was foreign secretary between July 2013 and January 2015, was asked to quit by the NDA government five months before her stint was supposed to end.

The External Affairs Ministry had revoked Modi’s passport in 2010 after he left India for London following an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate against him for alleged betting and misappropriation of funds in the IPL tournament.

The ED had also issued a blue corner notice for Modi through the Interpol.

While Singh did not elaborate, sources said that any decision to give travel documents to Modi should have been taken in consultation with officials of the Ministries of External Affairs and Finance as well as the ED.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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