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Home > News > India News > Article > Combative Tharoor denies Modi charges says wont resign

Combative Tharoor denies Modi charges, says won't resign

Updated on: 15 April,2010 12:31 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

Embattled Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, on Wednesday said he would not oblige his critics by resigning as he had done no wrong in the billowing controversy over the Kochi IPL franchise. As the crackling mixture of politics, sports, money and sleaze gripped a cricket-crazy nation's collective attention, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to promise from Washington full inquiry into the matter.

Combative Tharoor denies Modi charges, says won't resign

Embattled Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, on Wednesday said he would not oblige his critics by resigning as he had done no wrong in the billowing controversy over the Kochi IPL franchise. As the crackling mixture of politics, sports, money and sleaze gripped a cricket-crazy nation's collective attention, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to promise from Washington full inquiry into the matter.


"If I had done anything wrong, I would have resigned. To resign because people have chosen to deliberately misrepresent you or misperceive you means that you are giving more importance to other people's perception than to your own character and your own integrity. I am not going to resign," Tharoor told NDTV in a half-hour long interview.


Commenting for the first time since the controversy broke out two days ago, Manmohan Singh said in Washington that he was not aware of the facts of the case.


"I don't have all the facts. When I go back, I will get the facts and will take action ... if required," he told journalists. "We can't go by hearsay and media reports."

The prime minister's remarks came a day ahead of the resumption of the budget session of the Indian parliament where the opposition is determined to corner the government over the IPL controversy.

Tharoor asserted in his interview telecast live on the channel that the charges were motivated by political and business interests.

"In fact, the fact of the matter is I have done nothing wrong. I stand with my head held high," he added.

Tharoor said that he will brief both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the matter.

Tharoor added that his involvement with the IPL team had nothing whatsoever to do with Sunanda Pushkar, who has a stake in the company that is a co-owner of IPL Kochi franchise, and with whom he has only been "recently close".

On Wednesday, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) echoed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) demand that Tharoor be thrown out of the Manmohan Singh ministry.

The BJP went even further, asking for the prime minister to sack Tharoor, without waiting for evidence.

"Everything is now in the public domain. By abusing his ministerial position and authority, Tharoor ensured that his friend Sunanda Pushkar is richer by Rs.70-75 crore without investing anything," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

IPL commissioner Modi stuck to his position, saying there was a question mark over the ownership of Kerala team.

"Tharoor called me and asked me to keep the identity of Sunanda Pushkar under wraps. The conversation with Tharoor is minuted," he said.

He also dismissed reports that he had offered money to the consortium to not bid for the Kerala team. "I never made a $50 million dollar bribe," said Modi.

Earlier in the day, Pushkar also hit out at her critics and denied being a proxy to the minister. Breaking her silence, Pushkar said: "My own business interests and assets are substantial, and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend."

Pushkar said she had been contacted by Rendezvous Sports World, one of the consortium members of the Kochi IPL franchise, to take advantage of "my extensive international experience as a business executive, marketing manager and entrepreneur".

"Because this is a start-up effort, I was told that in lieu of a salary they would grant me minor equity in Rendezvous in return for my efforts, a common practice across the world for... projects of this nature."

Modi made an explosive revelation Sunday that Pushkar had got free equity in the Kerala franchise worth Rs.70 crore (around $15 million).

Tharoor, a former UN official who joined the Congress last year and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, has been under the scanner ever since he became a minister.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that the Directorate General of Investigation in Kochi had ordered a probe to ascertain if money had been channelled illegally into the Kochi IPL team from tax havens abroad.

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