IPL row costs Shashi Tharoor his job as minister

Shashi Tharoor tonight resigned as minister of state for external affairs after a core group of the Congress decided that he should quit in the wake of the controversy over the IPL Kochi franchise.

Tharoor's resignation capped a week's drama that had threatened to suck the government and the party into it.

Tharoor, 54, a newcomer to politics from international diplomacy, was summoned by prime minister Manmohan Singh to his residence late at night and told to put in his papers.

"Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, has submitted his resignation from the council of ministers to
the prime minister today," a spokesperson for the prime minister's office said.

"The prime minister has forwarded his resignation letter to the president with a recommendation that it be accepted."

Tharoor, an author and a former undersecretary-general in the United Nations, thus earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first minister in the United Progressive Alliance's second stint in power to leave under a cloud of corruption.

The continuance in government of Tharoor — a first-time MP from Trivandrum who courted controversy throughout his 11-month stint — became untenable after the IPL controversy exploded.

He got into serious trouble after IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's friend, Sunanda Pushkar, had equity in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), which headed the consortium that owns the Kochi team.

It was later disclosed that Pushkar got 'sweat equity' worth Rs70 crore from RSW. Following this, the opposition began gunning for Tharoor's removal on the grounds that he had misused his office for pecuniary gain.

That Pushkar today offered to surrender the sweat equity and quit RSW failed to convince the Congress top brass, which met at the prime minister's residence in the evening to decide its strategy before Parliament resumes tomorrow after the weekend break.

Singh, who met Gandhi privately before the core group meeting, consulted her again before forwarding Tharoor's resignation to the president.

Indications that Tharoor was on his way out came when he went to the prime minister's residence at night in a private car without the beacon light. Throughout the day, he avoided the media.

The core group meeting discussed the minister's continuance in the wake of the controversy over allotment of sweat equity to Pushkar by the IPL Kochi franchise.

Gandhi met Singh in private before the core group discussions. Tharoor, whose removal had been demanded by the opposition on grounds of corruption, had met Singh at noon to give his side of the story.

The decision to ask Tharoor to quit came a day after the prime minister returned from his eight-day visit to the US and Brazil where he had said he would take the necessary action after getting all the facts of the controversy.

Tharoor tried to clear his name by denying that he had played any role in getting an equity stake for Pushkar. He also made a statement in Parliament, but the opposition would have none of it.

The Congress itself was not convinced by Tharoor's explanation, forcing him to leave. In the last two days, Tharoor met Gandhi, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, and defence minister AK Antony separately to try and persuade them that he was innocent.

A party source said Gandhi was unhappy over the developments and the other leaders felt that Pushkar's offer to return the sweat equity amounted to an admission of guilt.

The core group is also believed to have discussed the damage wrought by the controversy to the government and the party. It felt that a decision needed to be taken to allow the party to face Parliament.

Parliament was paralysed on Friday with the opposition demanding Tharoor's resignation. The opposition had also given enough hints that it would continue to disrupt Parliament if Tharoor was not sacked.