The campaign for the ouster of Sushma Swaraj was met with a strong counter-offensive when she launched a no-holds-barred attack on Congress.

The campaign for the ouster of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was on Wednesday met with a strong counter-offensive when she launched a no-holds-barred attack on Congress, accusing it of having taken money to help alleged Bofors middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi and then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson flee India even as the government rejected the demand for her resignation.

Taking the floor after a number of searching questions were raised by Congress group leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Swaraj's charges against late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his government and the attack on Rahul Gandhi escalated further tensions between the Opposition and government as a washed-out session of Parliament comes to an end on Thursday.

On the penultimate day of the month-long session, which was paralysed over the Congress' demand for Swaraj's resignation, the two sides settled for a discussion on an adjournment motion that was, to say the least, acrimonious.

At the end of the day, the adjournment motion was defeated by a voice vote after Congress walked out of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jatiley rejected the demand for her resignation saying all the allegations against "are baseless."

Here is how the chaotic day unfolded in the Parliament:

Mallikarjun Kharge begins the heated debate

Kharge, who moved an adjournment motion, raised a number of queries over Swaraj's help to former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, a "fugitive", in getting travel document "in stealth" to go outside London when law enforcement agencies were looking for him here. Kharge, with Rahul Gandhi listening keenly behind him, said that Swaraj had aided an economic offender bypass the law.

"Despite knowing everything against him, why did she help him?" Kharge said. "Your relations with him were very deep...We are alleging that what you have done is illegal," Kharge said.

The Congress leader said that Swaraj hadn't pursued the Blue Corner notice against him since her family was representing him as lawyers.

He accused her of being involved in conflict of interest because her husband and daughter were lawyers for Modi, which she rejected saying the two did not appear in the case of Modi's passport cancellation and did not take a single rupee as fees.

Kharge also lashed out at the prime minister. "There is no point in this debate unless the prime minister is present," he said. "The prime minister has shut his eyes, mouth and ears to this controversy," he added.

"Prime Minister earlier used to say, 'Na khaaonga, na khaane doonga' (Neither will I engage in corruption nor will I allow others to do so). Now he says, 'tum khaate jaao, main dekhte rehta hoon,'" said the Congress leader.

Sushma Swaraj's scathing reply to the Congress

"I didn't do anything wrong. If helping a woman who has not been involved in any crime is wrong, then I admit I have done something wrong," Sushma Swaraj said in her statement.

"Why are they turning a non-issue into an issue? Khargeji said that my family members are Lalit Modi's lawyers. But my husband was not a lawyer of Lalit Modi in the passport case," Swaraj said in the Parliament amid uproar by the Opposition. "My daughter did not take even a single penny from Lalit Modi in this case as she was the ninth junior member in a team of 11," she said.

Swaraj then attacked the Congress and alleged that it was then Finance Minister P Chidambaram who was involved in conflict of interest.

"I want to tell Opposition members what conflict of interest is," Swaraj said. She said the "conflict of interest" was when Chidambaram headed the Ministry of Finance and his wife Nalini was made the lawyer for the I-T department.

Things got personal when Swaraj spoke against Rahul Gandhi and asked to enquire with his mother (Congress president Sonia Gandhi) on how much cash changed hands while protecting Quattrocchi and Anderson. Her attacks even did not spare Congress governments in the past, including the one headed by Rahul's late father Rajiv Gandhi.

"Sushma does not do anything in stealth. If there was anyone who indulged in stealth, it was the Rajiv Gandhi government that helped Union Carbide's chief Warren Anderson to flee from India in the wake of the Bhopal gas disaster.

"It was the Congress government that helped Bofors-accused Ottavio Quattrochchi to flee from India...Rahul Gandhi often shows interest in taking two-month holidays. He should sit in isolation and read the history of Congress governments.

"And when he comes back, he should ask, 'Mamma, how much money did we take from Quattrochi?'" Swaraj said.

"Why was Warren Anderson, who was responsible for the deaths of 15,000 people, allowed to go out of the country?" she said in her speech that riled the Congress benches.

Swaraj also alleged that it was under UPA rule that Lalit Modi had got right of residency in the UK. "Lalit Modi got right of residency in the UK when your government was in power," Sushma Swaraj said.

"Why are they demanding answers from me? They themselves are responsible for what they are asking...Congress leadership was divided on Lalit Modi case. One half wanted probe, other half did not," she said.

Swaraj then got emotional and said that she had been in politics in a dignified way for 38 years. "I have been in politics for 38 years. The kind of dignity with thich I have engaged in politics is like a tapasya (endeavour)," she said.

Why hide and help? Rahul Gandhi to Sushma Swaraj

Later, Rahul Gandhi himself took the floor and hit back at Swaraj, saying she helped Lalit Modi because her family (husband and daughter) were the lawyers for him.

"I ask Sushma Swaraj how much money you got for rescuing Modi. You must be the only person in the world to help a person on humanitarian grounds in stealth," he said.

He accused Prime Minister Modi of maintaining silence and cited Gandhiji's three monkeys to claim that Modi "does not see truth, does not speak truth and does not hear truth".

"Prime Minister Modi is not in the House because he does not have the guts to face truth," Rahul said.

He said the Prime Minister was not talking on the issue after having promised to bring black money back to the country and putting Rs 15 lakh in everybody's account.

"Lalit Modi is the symbol of black money in the country. IPL is the symbol of black money in the country," he said.

Jaitley replies as Congress stages walkout

Replying on behalf of the government, Jaitley said a "mountain was made out of what was not even a mole hill". In the middle of his speech, Congress staged a walkout from Lok Sabha.

"We need to go back to 2009 when the IPL was shifted to South Africa for security reasons as the country was holding its General Elections. However, the money transferred to South Africa for holding the tournament was transferred without RBI permission. Since then the ED has been on the look out for the person whose name has been now coming often in the news," Jaitley said.

"Instead of giving a Red Corner Notice or a Blue Corner Notice through the Interpol, the then government only issued a Light Blue Corner Notice to airports in Jaipur while looking out for that person. This person has violated FEMA regulations as per the then UPA government," the Union minister said.

Hitting back at Congress for targeting Swaraj in a sustained manner, he said she had been made a "scapegoat of a pretext" as the main reason for disrupting Parliament was to "sabotage the Indian growth story" by stalling reform legislations like GST.

He ruled out Swaraj's resignation, saying she had done nothing wrong and the Congress had created a "cloud" of a "scandal" which did not exist.

Making a scathing attack on Rahul, Jaitley said the Congress vice president is "an expert without knowledge". Jaitley referred to Rahul's citing the story of Gandhiji and three monkeys and asked him not to "make a monkey out of the country" by holding up an entire session of Parliament.

He also hit out at Rahul for questioning the role of Swaraj's lawyer daughter.

"There are still some honest people whose children have to work for a living. There are other people who, for generations in politics, have not worked for a living. They have learnt the art of living comfortably without working, which we have not," he said in a veiled reference to the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Responding to Rahul's charge that nothing is being done to bring back black money stashed abroad, Jaitley also said, "we have taken some hard steps. Some people, who are critics of this government, are saying these are too harsh steps. You (Congress) did nothing. Every steps have been taken by us."

(With inputs from PTI)