New Delhi, June 16: The BJP today fielded senior ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh to attest to foreign minister Sushma Swaraj's "bona fides" and "good intentions" at a news conference they jointly addressed.

Their endorsement came along with indications that Lalit Modi, the former IPL chief whom Sushma had helped gain British travel papers using her office, would have to face the heat from the Enforcement Directorate.

"Sushma's credentials are badly besmirched. She will be in the government but surviving at others' mercy," a BJP official said.

"It reminds me of a line from an old Hindi film where the villain, Ajit, tells a target whom he has neutralised but not killed that he would forever be on 'liquid oxygen', neither dying nor living."

It has been officially confirmed that a "light blue-corner notice", asking international law-enforcing agencies for information on Lalit's activities, had been issued in 2010 on an Enforcement Directorate plea, and that it was in operation even today.

Government sources said they would strive to seek Lalit's extradition from Britain, something the UPA too had tried before being thwarted by the United Kingdom's interpretations of its extradition law.

Political sources said the "hot pursuit" of Lalit was the only way the government could control the damage the scandal has done to its credibility and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image.

"We have to distance and de-link ourselves from him (Lalit)," a source stressed, alluding to how the BJP's defence of Sushma seems to have strengthened longstanding perceptions of its alleged patronage of Lalit.

Sushma is accused of helping Lalit secure British travel documents at a time India had revoked his passport over charges of foreign exchange violations and was looking to get him extradited from Britain, where he had fled in 2010.

It's no secret that Sushma and Narendra Modi share a functional rather than warm relationship. With the Prime Minister making foreign policy the centrepiece of his agenda, the perception was that Sushma had been reduced to a secondary role.

Some other ministers too have found themselves in similar plight. Sources close to Rajnath, the home minister, have chafed at Modi's treatment of a man who once helmed the party.

When the Lalit controversy erupted and it seemed Sushma's job could be on the line, Rajnath quickly spoke to senior Sangh officials such as general secretary Suresh "Bhaiyya" Joshi and Krishna Gopal.

Sources claimed Rajnath had told Joshi and Gopal that if Sushma were forced out, the "balance of power" in the government would tilt more decisively towards the Modi-Shah duo and Jaitley, their ally.

By evening, the snowballing controversy appears to have overtaken any such compulsions.

Sangh spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya said: "As far as I know, there was no such thing. The RSS does not interfere in the BJP's or the government's working."

Another Sangh official, unwilling to be named, confirmed that Rajnath had called Joshi and Gopal but said: "It sounds unlikely that the RSS will bat openly for Sushma. The episode is questionable, so why would the Sangh want to be associated with it?"

When he was party president, Rajnath would often invoke his purported proximity to Sangh senior Suresh Soni (who is no longer powerful) to vindicate his contentious moves. This time, he had let his aides spread the word that the Sangh had "directed" him and Shah, the BJP president, to publicly declare support for Sushma and defuse the crisis.

Today, Rajnath told reporters that when he had backed Sushma on the first day, he had done so for "solid reasons and because I knew I will be proved right".

Sushma called on Rajnath at his office where Jaitley joined them before the two men faced the media together.

The news conference had ostensibly been called to announce more fiscal help for Jammu and Kashmir but that turned out to be a pretext to enable the duo to take questions on the Sushma controversy.

It was also an effort to show the government was "united" after MP Kirti Azad's tweet yesterday about a party " aasteen ka saamp" (betrayer) conspiring with a TV channel to tar BJP leaders.

Jaitley was to fly off to the US tonight, and the BJP was keen that he "clear the air" on Sushma before leaving.