New Delhi: Tension flared up in Rajya Sabha Monday afternoon after AAP MP Sanjay Singh sought a clarification from the ruling party over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name being mentioned in the Epstein files, during the debate on the President’s address.
Condemning Singh, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said that mentioning the name of a convicted sex offender in the sacred halls of the Parliament is a reflection of the “twisted and warped” mentality of the AAP leader.
“The fact of the matter is, among the millions of emails, there is no mention of a direct email with the Prime Minister, no direct message, no direct phone calls… The DoJ (Department of Justice) has also said that these are false and sensational allegations… The Prime Minister was in Israel on his official trip. Each and every meeting of his was official and there was only one song that was sung there and that was the national song,” Trivedi said soon after Singh finished his speech.
Congress media and publicity department chairperson Pawan Khera in a tweet on 31 January alleged that Epstein had, in a purported email on 9 July 2017, said that “the Indian Prime Minister Modi took advice and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US President. They had met a few weeks ago. IT WORKED!”
It is a matter of national shame that Jeffery Epstein – a convicted human trafficker, child sex offender and serial rapist from the USA – wrote that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his “advice and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president. They had met a… pic.twitter.com/3jRXjGLNsS
— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) January 31, 2026
PM Modi had visited Israel, the first such visit by an Indian PM, on 4 July 2017 before meeting the then US President Donald Trump on 25-26 June 2017.
Trivedi’s reply was in response to Singh seeking a clarification from the BJP about PM Modi’s name mentioned in the Epstein files.
BJP’s Dinesh Sharma, who was presiding in the Upper house interjected a couple of times when Singh was speaking and said that whatever has been said without any basis or proof will not go on record.
Singh waded into the controversy during his speech when he said, “Bharat ke pradhan mantri par arop lag raha hai aur aap log jawab nahin dena chahte (Allegations are being levelled against India’s Prime Minister and you do not want to answer)… I am saying, if the PM’s name is being mentioned at least the government should give clarification,” he said.
Singh was referring to the chats, along with emails, exchanged over a period of two years between Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included exchanges where the former told Epstein that Modi was scheduled to go on an official visit to the US and later to Israel, around July 2017.
In the purported exchanges, Ambani also requested Epstein to arrange a meeting between him and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump (US president in his earlier term from January 2017 to January 2021); and Steve Bannon, White House chief strategist from January to August 2017.
This purported conversation between Epstein and Ambani features in the latest tranche of Epstein’s correspondence with influential figures released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) last week.
Earlier, on 31 January, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had labelled references to PM Modi in the latest tranche of Epstein’s correspondence with influential figures released by the US Department of Justice as baseless claims from a “convicted criminal”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)