New Delhi, April 16 (Inditop.com) Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Friday clarified that he had not misused his position to influence the IPL Kochi franchise’s bid and dismissed the opposition’s allegations as “baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated”.
Amid a rising clamour for his resignation by opposition MPs, Tharoor was unable to read out the statement and laid it on the table of the Lok Sabha.
“The allegations against me which have been seized upon by honourable members of the opposition are baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated,” Tharoor said in a written statement to the Lok Sabha.
“No misuse of my official position was involved,” he said, adding that his role in mentoring the Kerala consortium was “throughout within the bounds of appropriate conduct for a Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram and a member of the union council of ministers”.
He said the suggestion that he had “indirectly received personal benefits from this enterprise because the Rendezvous management team, who hold stakes in the venture, includes a close friend of mine… is particularly wounding.
“I have had a three-decade career in international public service that has never been sullied by the slightest taint of financial wrongdoing.
“Those who know me are aware that money has never been a motivating factor for me in any of my actions or decisions.”
The minister is alleged to have helped his Dubai-based friend Pushkar get sweat equity worth Rs.70 crore in the IPL Kochi franchise. There are also allegations that Pushkar, who is originally a Kashmiri, was a proxy for Tharoor in the consortium. Pushkar has already denied it.
The minister retorted: “The notion that somebody is some sort of ‘proxy’ for me is frankly insulting to me and to the professionalism and business ethics of the investors and their associates, particularly since I could not have any role in influencing the final outcome of a sealed bidding process.
“It is unworthy of any member of this august house to imply that a reputed business professional and entrepreneur with a long track record of business success can, because of her gender, only be seen as a front for someone else.”
Not denying his “personal relationship” with Pushkar, Tharoor said: “Irrespective of my personal relationships with any of the consortium members, I have not benefited, and do not intend to benefit, in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage.”
Ruling out that the issue had anything to do with his ministry, he said: “As a minister, I was in no position to influence the bid process, let alone its outcome. I did not grant any favours or benefits within the purview of my ministry to the members of the consortium.
“No one could have any idea what the various participants in the auction process would bid, and my official position gave me no advantage in this regard that could have been used to benefit the Kerala bid. Indeed my ministerial position was altogether irrelevant to the bid and so could not have been used or misused to ensure its success.”
He said the “unexpected success” of the Kerala consortium was “not acceptable to some interested parties”. This led to the allegations about the composition and ownership of the consortium and his role in it.
“It has been clear for some time that the real motive behind the public controversy that has been created around me is to make the Kochi team unviable and to assign this IPL franchise elsewhere than Kerala,” he said.
However, the clarification left the opposition unimpressed as the BJP declared that nothing short of Tharoor’s resignation was acceptable. The din made Speaker Meira Kumar adjourn the house till 2 p.m.
rounak