External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is a canny politician who is adept in the art of silence to wriggle out of many an awkward situation. Like grinning and bearing the ignominy of rushing to take on Sonia Gandhi at Bellary in 1999 and coming back with a bloody nose. Or of throwing her hat in the ring for the BJP prime ministerial sweepstake last year, until Narendra Modi became unstoppable. And after finding her place in South Block, she silently accepted Modi getting a free hand to craft India’s foreign policy. Never did she argue the toss.
But with the Lalit Modi episode, in which she was caught helping the diabolical genius of cricket to get out of his hidey-hole in the UK, on an excuse that may not stand a chance of winning before a court of law, Swaraj has indeed sailed close to the wind. Modi, implicated by the Enforcement Directorate in a fraud charge involving millions of dollars, is a fugitive from the Indian law.