Minister of state for external affairs Tharoor is facing allegations of having misused office to get sweat equity valued at Rs70 crore for his friend Sunanda Pushkar in Kochi IPL franchise.
Caught in the vortex of an escalating controversy, Shashi Tharoor will have to wait for at least another day before he knows where his future as a union minister is headed.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh landed back in the capital on Saturday afternoon after a week long visit to Washington and Brazil. But the news at home has not been good for the government.
Junior minister Shashi Tharoor has once again landed the government in a soup. The opposition is up in arms, stalling Parliament at a time when the finance bill has not been approved. Before Parliament meets on Monday, the Prime Minister has to take a decision on Tharoor’s fate.
The junior minister is said to have asked for an appointment with the PM. At the traditional news conference which the PM holds on the special aircraft, Singh gave a bland answer to reporter’s questions on Tharoor and the uproar in the Parliament. “In politics, ups and downs keep happening,” Singh said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Three days ago when the Prime Minister was asked in Washington about the scandal he said: “I do not have all the facts before me. When I go back, I will get all the facts, and in the light of those, if any action is necessary, I think that would be the proper way to proceed.”
With Singh dropping no hints on the possible action to be taken against the Thiruvananthapuram MP, speculations over Tharoor’s fate continued unabated on Saturday, as the controversy over the minister’s alleged “impropriety” in lobbying for the Kochi franchise of the IPL entered its fifth day.
Given the seriousness of the allegations against Tharoor and the onslaught of a combined opposition on the Congress-led UPA government, the possibility of a severe reprimand against the junior minister looks certain, particularly since the minister’s clarification on the issue hasn’t found many takers within his party.
The party has left it for the PM to take a final call. The PM will do so in consultation with party president Sonia Gandhi, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister AK Antony. He will look at the report of the internal probe that the party had conducted as well as facts collected by investigating agencies who have conducted raids on offices of various IPL franchisees. Mukherjee who is expected back in Delhi today has already submitted a report which according to sources has found evidence of impropriety against Tharoor.
Congressmen who dislike Tharoor, want him to be dropped immediately to prevent further embarrassment to the government which is already bracing itself for a stormy session in the parliament over rising prices, women’s reservation bill and the nuclear liability bill. Some believe that sacking the minister would be an admission of his complicity in the Kochi franchise’s financial dealings. A senior Congress leader said the party is mulling over asking Tharoor to resign taking moral responsibility. In fact, many in the Congress feel that the minister should have at least offered to resign.
Another suggestion being made is to ask Tharoor’s close associate Sunanda Pushkar to surrender the sweat equity she holds. Officially, the party isn’t willing to comment on the matter.
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