By IANS,
New Delhi : Former UN chief Kofi Annan has rallied to the defence of his former colleague Shashi Tharoor, asking the people of India to support “good politicians”.
“Hi 1.2 billion+ people of India. If you think you live in a democratic country, then you are 100% wrong,” Annan, once Tharoor’s boss, wrote 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.
The portal on which Annan recorded his support for Tharoor has now garnered 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.