No ‘noise’ from netas on Lalit Modi row

The Indian Premier League (IPL) row seems to have given the leaders of the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance a common ground.

They are in regular parleys to avert any further embarrassment involving the IPL.

However, as far as the noise factor is concerned, the political establishment seemed to have washed its hands of the controversy, with none of the major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, raising the issue in parliament on Wednesday even as country-wide income tax raids were conducted on IPL franchises.

While Congress leaders close to the cricketing establishment, including IPL governing council member Rajiv Shukla, promised tough measures in the interest of the game of cricket, BJP leader Arun Jaitley remained tight-lipped. Farooq Abdullah, who till  Tuesday was batting strongly for IPL commissioner Modi, looked to have sensed the mood across party lines and gave up on him.

The only movement on the political front on the issue was finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s briefing to the prime minister on the “survey” conducted by various agencies, including the income tax department, directorate of revenue intelligence and the enforcement directorate, to find out instances of tax evasion by IPL franchises.

The high-profile league was virtually out of bounds for these agencies till the Kochi franchise dispute spilled over to the political and public domain.

Sharad Pawar, Modi’s strongest backer, has already left the IPL commissioner to fend for himself. He made no further statement on the issue on Wednesday. The Congress is not keen on pushing Pawar to the corner at the moment. But by conducting nation-wide raids and probing the money channelised into the cricketing event from tax havens, it is sending out a clear signal to people close to the NCP leader that all is not well.