By IANS,
New Delhi: Three days after his resignation, a portal rallying around the beleaguered Shashi Tharoor has been deluged with over 12,000 pledges of support.
The messages included one from someone claiming to be former UN chief Kofi Annan.
“Hi 1.2 billion+ people of India. If you think you live in a democratic country, then you are 100% wrong,” wrote someone introducing himself as Annan in a message posted at http://supporttharoor.org, a portal that was launched to garner support for the beleaguered minister a day before he resigned.
“You vote for the election once in 5 years. And for 5 years the country belongs to your politicians. They enjoy for 5 years. So if you think India is democratic, think again,” Annan writes.
He urged Indians to support “good politicians like Rahul, Tharoor, Nitish, Umar.”
“Go support them, I as an ex-UN chief will be deeply obliged,” he writes.
It can’t be confirmed who was the author of the message. But observers pointed out that a seasoned diplomat can’t be talking in a casual manner like this.
The portal has now garnered over 12,000 pledges for the former minister and first-time MP from Kerala.
Tharoor served as executive assistant to the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the late 1990s. After Annan’s term ended in 2006, Tharoor contested for the post of the UN secretary general, but lost it to South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon.