On Board Air India One, April 17 (Inditop.com) Unfazed by the growing clamour for the resignation of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday chose to tread carefully on the row, saying politics has its ups and downs.
“In politics, ups and downs keep happening,” Singh told journalists on board his special craft when asked about the growing din over the Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy surrounding Tharoor.
Manmohan Singh is likely to meet Tharoor soon and seek an explanation from him about the controversy and his role in it.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who accompanied the prime minister on his special flight from Brazil, too sounded evasive. “We will have to find out the facts after returning to India,” he told journalists, echoing what the prime minister had said in Washington three days ago.
When the news about Tharoor’s alleged links with the Kochi IPL franchise broke in India, Manmohan Singh was in Washington and had reacted cautiously when asked about the issue.
“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,” Manmohan Singh had said.
Tharoor is being accused of having misused office to get sweat equity valued at Rs.70 crore for his friend Sunanda Pushkar in the Kochi IPL franchise.
Tharoor had Friday clarified that he had not misused his official position, and his “mentoring” the Kerala consortium of the Kochi IPL franchise was within the “bounds of appropriate conduct” as an MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
The Congress leadership is apparently not satisfied with the minister’s explanation as he did not say anything about Pushkar’s share in the Kochi IPL franchise, a party source said.
“The party is not in a mood to defend Tharoor. The party also feels that it would be more of an embarrassment for the party and the government if the prime minister is forced to defend Tharoor in parliament on such a murky issue,” a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.
According to party officials, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has handed over the issue to the prime minister.
