IPL row: PM forces Tharoor to resign

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, who compromised the moral authority of his ministerial position by extracting a sweetheart deal for his friend, Dubai-based Sunanda Pushkar, from Indian Premier League’s Kochi franchise, was on Sunday night forced to put in his papers.

The Congress core committee, which met for over two hours late on Sunday evening, took the decision to seek Mr Tharoor’s resignation. His presence in the government, it was felt, would only render it more vulnerable to the Opposition’s attack. Congress president Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have been of the view that the government should cut its losses by easing out Mr Tharoor.

Mr Tharoor was summoned to the prime minister’s residence soon after the core group meeting with his resignation letter. His resignation will be accepted by the President before Parliament meets on Monday. The Congress leadership, which took a serious view of Mr Tharoor’s indiscretions, had on Friday itself concluded that his continuation in office would only deplete the moral capital of the government.


Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister AK Antony, who conducted an investigation into the charges against Mr Tharoor, had found that he was not an indifferent mentor of the Kochi team, but an active participant, working out the nuts and bolts of the deal.

The two senior minister were also confronted with evidence of sorts to suggest that Mr Tharoor had even bargained for a 10% sweat equity instead of 5% for Ms Pushkar from the promoters of the new cricket club.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh, who hand-picked Mr Tharoor for the junior minister’s job, gave him an opportunity to present his side of the story on Sunday noon. The minister’s protestations of innocence were at variance with the facts collected by the government on his involvement in the big-bucks cricket project. The minister was dragging his feet after the controversy broke out with “why should I resign” statements.

At the meeting with the prime minister, Mr Tharoor is learnt to have complained about the “unwholesome” role of two Union ministers and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi in the management of IPL. He repeated his line that he has not done anything wrong.

Sunanda Pushkar, too, attempted to save her friend’s job by saying she was giving up her sweat equity in the club. But this was interpreted by some as a ploy to claim “victimhood”. If anything, it appears to have strengthened the impression that she did not get the equity for the qualities that Mr Tharoor described — “a reputed business professional and entrepreneur with a long track record of business success” — but as a quid pro quo for the minister’s intervention in the team’s favour.

Sources said an Intelligence Bureau dossier on Ms Pushkar was sent to the higher ups when Mr Tharoor was made a minister, but the government leadership chose to ignore it.

Ms Gandhi, who is upset with Mr Tharoor for landing the party in a mess, conveyed the party’s views on the Tharoor episode to the prime minister before the core committee met this evening. The core committee was briefed by Mr Mukherjee about his findings.