ET Comment: India has the right to know

Come clean BCCI and Lalit Modi. Let the public in on who owns how much of each one of the IPL teams. As private companies, they are not obliged to make such disclosure.

But as IPL teams, they are very public bodies, celebrating India’s collective verve for sport, competition, enjoyment and entertainment. India has a right to know.

Was any rule or norm of propriety broken when Kochi secured the contested franchise? Did Shashi Tharoor’s intervention earn IPL or its owner, BCCI a single rupee less? If not, what is the fuss?

As a minister from Kerala, did Mr Tharoor do wrong to lobby for an IPL franchise for Kerala? Catch any Malayali voter saying that.

But should Tharoor have pitched, even if lawfully, for a consortium that grants sweat equity to a friend? That surely constitutes impropriety, if not a sacking offence. It’s high time we purged BCCI and other sporting bodies of both politicians and sleaze.