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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Govindacharya said that Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje should quit on moral grounds in the wake of the Lalit Modi controversy as from common man's perception they are "guilty".
"They should do it like Advani had done it, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sharad Yadav. There are many such examples and it will benefit the party," Govindacharya said on Sunday when asked whether the external affairs minister and the Rajasthan chief minister should resign in the wake of the raging row over the former Indian Premier League commissioner.
"It seems they (Swaraj and Raje) have given some help. They had good relations...like share issues or Dushyant Singh issue are concerned. From common man's perception, they are guilty. Even if they resign on moral ground, if they were proved not guilty they can come back," he told India Today.
"The image of party and the government will improve. If they think to fight it legally then the issue will continue to stick as it happened in the Bofors issue," he said.
On the external affairs minister's defence that she helped Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds as his wife was to be operated for cancer, Govindacharya said Swaraj should understand what she has said. "She should be cautious," he said.
Asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi is losing out on the big mandate he got in the Lok Sabha elections during which he promised to uphold moral values, Govindacharya said, "Now, he is silent. There will be (Parliament) session. I think the PM is politically intelligent. He must be thinking".
Asked about inner troubles in the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said the party is not healthy. "There is a need for more discussion. The party's position is not healthy. There is need for more coordination," he said.
Govindacharya's comments come close on the heels of BJP patriarch Advani stressing that there is a need to maintain probity in public life. Advani resigned as an MP in 1996 following allegations of his involvement in the infamous Hawala scam and he was consequently re-elected in 1998 after his name had been cleared.
Entries found in the diaries of Hawala broker S K Jain were presented as crucial evidences against top politicians including Advani in the court by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
"For a politician, to command people's trust is the biggest responsibility. What morality demands that is 'rajdharma' and need to maintain probity in public life," he had told a Bengali daily.
Swaraj and Raje are embroiled in the Lalit Modi controversy over extending help to the tainted former IPL boss in connection with his travel documents in the United Kingdom triggering demands by the Congress for their resignation.
On Smriti Irani's alleged discrepancy in her affidavit, he said it gives a negative message and the image of the government also suffers.
Image: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan CM Vasundhra Raje greet each other at a public meeting in Jaipur on October 2011. Photograph: PTI