Has Lalit Modi row finally got to Sushma Swaraj?

Is it succumbing to pressure or a strategy? On the morning of July 22, Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj posted two tweets to attack the Congress and said that one of its leaders had urged her to give a diplomatic passport to former Union minister, and an accused in the coal scam, Santosh Bagrodia.

Swaraj tweeted: "A senior Congress leader was pressing me hard to give diplomatic passport to the coal scam accused Santosh Bagrodia…I will disclose name of the leader on the floor of the House."

A senior Congress leader was pressing me hard to give diplomatic passport to the Coal Scam accused Santosh Bagrodia.@ANI_news

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 22, 2015

I will disclose name of the leader on the floor of the House.@imTejasBarot

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 22, 2015

Swaraj is facing immense heat from the Opposition ever since her alleged links with former IPL boss Lalit Modi came in the public domain a couple of months ago. BJP's rivals, particularly the Congress, have been demanding her resignation for extending help to Lalit Modi. She may have given in to pressure after the Opposition disrupted the first day of Parliament's monsoon session on July 21, demanding her resignation.

Alternately, the minister may have timed exposing the Congress at the beginning of Parliament's monsoon session. Posting the tweets may be a strategy to put the Congress, which has been the most vocal among the Opposition in demanding her resignation, on the defensive to ensure that some of the heat she is facing is deflected away.

So far, Swaraj could be seen defending herself, her daughter and husband in the Lalit Modi controversy. But she has launched a scathing attack on the Congress for the first time and posted the tweets indicating that either she cannot take the heat any more or that she will not go down without a fight.

One does not know when Swaraj was contacted by the Congress leader and this needs to be probed. But the timing of her counter-attack is certainly suspect. She may be asked why she did not raise the red flag immediately after she was approached by the Congress leader instead of waiting for the monsoon session to begin.

Her attempts at pointing the finger at the Congress may also boomerang because they reek of political vendetta. She has been accused of conflict of interest by assisting Lalit Modi, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for bungling of Rs 425-crore deal for TV rights, in getting the travel documents for him to fly from the UK to Portugal in August 2014. Now, in a move which may be seen as tit-for-tat, she is accusing a Congress leader of "pressing her hard" to get favours for Bagrodia, who was a Union minister of state for coal in the UPA regime. But it will hardly help her, because the Opposition may point out that two wrongs do not make a right.

Swaraj says the Congress member pressed hard for the former IPL chief to get a passport. But it is not clear how the leader in question approached her - whether he met her personally and in good faith, or had a mediator convey the message in person, in which case she would be accused of breach of faith for revealing such an interaction.