Opposition guns for Union minister’s head

The BJP put the UPA government on the mat in parliament on Friday over Shashi Tharoor’s involvement in the Kochi IPL team.

The party, working in tandem with others in the opposition — the Left, JD(U), RJD and SP — stalled work in both Houses. The opposition said it would settle for nothing less than Tharoor’s resignation.

The minister’s attempts to clarify his stance were thwarted by the opposition, which forced him to finally place his statement on the table of the House.

A visibly rattled Tharoor, under pressure from the Congress high command to come clean on the issue, later read out his statement before the media.

He rejected the charge that friend Sunanda Pushkar had benefited from the deal and also debunked the theory that she was a proxy for him. “The notion that somebody is some sort of proxy for me is insulting to me and to the professionalism and business ethics of the investors and associates. I have not benefited and do not intend to benefit in any way from my association with the team now or at a later stage,” he said.

Tharoor alleged that the controversy was created to make the Kochi team unviable and to take the franchise out of the state. “I believe all fair-minded Indians would hope that such tactics will not be allowed to prevail.  The allegations are baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated,” he said.

The BJP expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation, saying Tharoor made the statement as a parliamentarian, not minister.

“Shashi Tharoor is a public servant and he has misused his position for monetary gain of his close friend,” party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

“Tharoor was thinking that we are naive people who cannot see beyond… He does not deny that he is mentor of Rendezvous Sports World. Neither does he deny that his officer-on-special-duty [OSD] Jacob Joseph was present at the Kochi IPL auction. The individual in question [Sunanda Pushkar], who happens to be a close friend of the minister, has not contributed anything to the franchise, to Kerala or to the game of cricket. Yet, this friend has been given 19% sweat equity.” 

However, it seems Tharoor could actually benefit from the BJP and the Left’s vociferous demand for his resignation.

Congress sources said the BJP’s protests had convinced the Congress high command that acting against Tharoor now would give the opposition an upper hand.

However, the party believes the junior minister is turning out to be an embarrassment for the government.

Also, the Congress is not too impressed with Tharoor’s clarification in parliament, even though his statement had been cleared by the party’s chief troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee.

Sources said Mukherjee was upset with Tharoor for calling up IPL chief Lalit Modi and giving OSD Joseph a free run.