By IANS,
New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s continuance in the government remained uncertain Sunday amid unending demands for his resignation even as his friend Sunanda Pushkar gave up her controversial stake in the IPL Kochi franchise.
The Congress also held a crucial meeting of its core committee to decide the future of Tharoor in the government. Tharoor is at the centre of a row regarding the Indian Premier League Kochi franchise business in which Pushkar got sweat equity worth Rs.70 crore.
But there was no official word about what happened in the nearly two-hour meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s House at 7, Race Course Road.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political advisor Ahmed Patel, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister A.K. Antony were present at the meeting to discuss the row which comes in the middle of parliament’s budget session.
Tharoor, who has been in the line of fire of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier in the day to explain his side of the story over the IPL controversy involving him and Pushkar.
The minister did not speak to reporters after the 50-minute meeting with Manmohan Singh. Neither was there any word from the Prime Minister’s Office on what was discussed.
The issue has turned out to be an explosive crisis for the government with the BJP and communist parties charging the beleaguered Tharoor with corruption.
The BJP argued that Pushkar’s action to surrender her stake Sunday was an admission of guilt.
“The surrounding suspicious circumstances outline that he (Tharoor) abused his authority for undue enrichment for his friend (Pushkar),” BJP leader and spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prasad alleged that Pushkar was a front for Tharoor in the IPL deal. “He (Tharoor) is the beneficiary, and that is why in haste all these laws were violated and sweat equity was issued (to her).”
The BJP threatened to stall parliament Monday if the government didn’t sack Tharoor.
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi ignited the controversy a week ago when he revealed the ownership pattern of Kochi IPL, stating that Pushkar, who is based in Dubai, owned free equity in Rendezvous Sports World, a member of the consortium that won the Kochi franchise.
Modi accused Tharoor of asking him not to reveal the ownership details — a charge the minister denied.
Pushkar’s lawyer Ashish Mehta announced Sunday — hours after a television channel claimed that she got the equity in violation of Company Law — that she was giving up the stake to Rendezvous Sports World.
“I had been looking forward to contributing over the next 10 years to building the team’s brand… However, I can no longer imagine being able to find the enthusiasm required to associate myself with any IPL activity in the foreseeable future,” Pushkar said in a letter to Rendezvous.
In the letter read out by her lawyer, Pushar said she was “deeply distressed at the violent, malicious reporting” surrounding her role in Rendezvous.
Mehta insisted that her decision was not related to Tharoor. “She herself is very hurt as a woman, as a professional. It has got nothing to do with Tharoor.”
Pushkar, who is originally from Kashmir, alleged she was being targeted because she was a woman.
“As a woman professional, I am shocked to find how easily certain parties with vested interests questioned my credentials mainly because I am a woman,” she said.
But the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was not impressed.
Its leader Nilotpal Basu said the Left parties wanted Tharoor to quit. Pushkar’s surrender of her stake doesn’t help, Basu said. “If Pushkar had done no wrong, as she has claimed, why should she give up her stake?”
Communist Party of India’s D. Raja said in similar vein: “If there was nothing murky, why did Sunanda (Pushkar) surrender?”