Shashi Tharoor, India’s Deputy Foreign Minister, resigned his post after a week-long cricket scandal. Tharoor had a important career in the United Nations and was elected to the ruling party in Congress for a parliamentary seat representing the city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, a small, southern state best known for its lush coastline and well-educated, affluent population.
Tharoor was a champion of the aspiring India middle class and a vocal opponent of the corruption within parliament. The most important aspect of Tharoor’s professional and modern governing style was his use of Twitter. He would comment on everything from foreign diplomacy to the horrors of flying India domestically. However, his tweeting was not exactly embraced by some members of his fellow ruling class, he was publicly criticized for tweets on flying "cattle class" to abide by the government's austerity guidelines and on the role of Saudi Arabia as a potential "interlocutor" between India and Pakistan.
Despite his unconventional style and criticism, Tharoor was still influential and successful in parliament. That all took a drastic change when Tharoor got involved with the Indian Premier League, a new professional global cricket tournament. India is so rabid about cricket that it has become a billion-dollar business. After Tharoor, a lifelong cricket fan, served as an adviser to a group of investors who put up $333.33 million to buy a new IPL franchise, Lalit Modi, head of the IPL, revealed details of the deal on Twitter on April 11. Among the shareholders was Sunanda Pushkar, Tharoor's frequent companion, who was listed as part owner of 5% of sweat equity. Modi accused Tharoor of asking him not to reveal the ownership details of the consortium — a charge Tharoor denies. Modi's comments prompted allegations in the Indian media that Pushkar's stake was given to her as a proxy for Tharoor.
Pushkar and Tharoor btoh denied the charges and Tharoor even posted a detailed defense on his Twitter page and his personal blog. Alleging that all this controversy is really about not allowing Kerala to have a cricket team, and to send the money elsewhere. After a week of feuding, Prime Minsiter Manmohan Singh announced that Tharoor had in fact resigned. Local Indian Media reported that even though Tharoor was not guilty of any wrongdoing, the party considered the controversy to be an embarrassment.
No comments:
Post a Comment