Vanuatu PM cancels fugitive Lalit Modi’s passport — because, obviously

In what might be the least surprising move of the week, Vanuatu's Prime Minister Jotham Napat has instructed the Citizenship Commission to revoke the passport issued to fugitive businessman Lalit Modi, as reported by PTI. This development comes hot on the heels of Modi’s gracious attempt to surrender his Indian passport at the Indian High Commission in London.

In a statement that barely masked his exasperation, Napat clarified that while standard background checks — yes, including Interpol screenings — turned up no criminal convictions at the time of Modi’s application, things got interesting in the last 24 hours.

Apparently, Interpol has twice rejected India’s requests to issue an alert on Modi, citing a rather inconvenient lack of substantive judicial evidence. Had such an alert been issued, his citizenship application would have been automatically rejected — something that, in hindsight, might have saved everyone a lot of trouble.

Napat didn’t mince words when he reminded everyone that holding a Vanuatu passport is a privilege, not a right — a sentiment that, let’s be honest, Modi probably didn’t find very amusing. Citizenship, Napat stressed, is meant for legitimate reasons, and — shocker — dodging extradition isn’t one of them.

For those just tuning in, last week, reports emerged that Modi, the man behind the hugely lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL), had acquired Vanuatu’s citizenship through its Citizenship by Investment programme. Vanuatu, a picturesque little island nation in the South Pacific, is well known for selling passports to investors at a pretty price.

Meanwhile, India isn’t exactly dropping the case. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs, confirmed that legal proceedings against the former IPL boss are still very much in play.

Modi, a former vice-president of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), isn’t exactly known for keeping things simple. He’s been accused of bid-rigging, money laundering, and violating India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. The cherry on top? He fled India in 2010 while under investigation for financial misconduct, including some questionable fund transfers.

For those unfamiliar with Vanuatu’s Citizenship by Investment scheme, here’s a crash course: fork out somewhere between $135,500 and $155,500 (around Rs 1.18 crore to Rs 1.35 crore), and voilà — you’re a citizen in 30 to 60 days. A fun little bonus? There’s no residency requirement, meaning you don’t even have to set foot in Vanuatu to claim citizenship. Convenient, right? So convenient, in fact, that the programme accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the country’s national revenue.

Unfortunately for Modi, it looks like his tropical passport dreams have gone up in smoke. Maybe it's time to start looking for another island — or, you know, face the music.

With agency inputs