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| Tharoor turns out to be the man behind | | | ABID SHAH
EARLY TIMES REPORT
NEW DELHI, Apr 13: Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor's forays in Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket through a Kashmiri friend seems poised to create a political storm here. This is more so since Congress president Sonia Gandhi has reportedly taken a note of the latest controversy kicked off by Tharoor though her party is yet to take a stand on this.
Soon after reports that the Minister not only helped the bidders of a consortium for Kochi IPL tam that had among others Tharoor's friend, an about 40-year-old woman with Kashmiri origin Sunanda Pushkar, the senior Minister for External Affairs SM Krishna and BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla were summoned by Sonia Gandhi for discussions on the controversy.
This has drawn the attention of the Congress high command in the wake of trading of charges between IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Tharoor. The latter has been helping Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited that made a successful bid for Kochi IPL team for a whopping sum of $333 million.
Tharoor is an MP from Kerala and his plea for helping the Rendezvous is that the company agreed to bid for Kochi team which could add to the pride of his home State. But Modi disclosed names of some of the owners of the consortium. This includes Pushkar who has a reported 19 percent stake in the 25 percent free equity owned by Rendezvous which led the consortium and won the bid. The value of Pushkar's stake is stated to be $15.82 million or Rs 70 crores.
According to reports appearing in newspapers here today, Sunsanda Pushkar is daughter of a retired Army officer who hailed from Sopore district in Kashmir. The family shifted to Jammu after militancy betook the Valley. Pushkar's first marriage to a Kashmiri ended up in divorce and her second husband died in a road accident in Delhi. Reports say that Pushkar shifted to Dubai and entered business in UAE.
The Rendezvous entry in IPL cricket is being questioned since Pushkar has of late been seen in social gatherings with Tharoor. Lalit Modi demanded a detailed statement from Rendezvous regarding the share holders of the consortium led by the company. After today's newspaper reports BJP demanded a probe into Tharoor's interests and intervention in IPL cricket.
As the entire controversy has started assuming a political nature, Tharoor issued a nine-point statement in his personal capacity, saying "this is so because charges made against him (by Lalit Modi) were of personal nature." Tharoor's statement says:
"A consortium led by Rendezvous was set up to bid for an IPL team. They approached me for help and guidance. I steered them towards Kerala. Rendezvous includes a number of people, including many I have never met, and Sunanda Pushkar, whom I know well.
"My role in mentoring the consortium included several conversations with Mr Lalit Modi, who guided us through the process and presented himself as a trusted friend.
"The consortium bid successfully in an open and transparent process. Their unexpected success upset the plans of a lot of powerful people, who had wanted the franchise to go elsewhere.
"Various attempts were made by Mr Modi and others to pressure the consortium members to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different State. Modi raised assorted objections to the bid documents but finally had no choice but to approve them.
"His extraordinary breach of all propriety in publicly raising issues relating to the composition of the consortium and myself personally is clearly an attempt to discredit the team and create reasons to disqualify it so that the franchise can be awarded elsewhere.
"Contemptible efforts have been made to drag in matters of my personal life which I do not intend to dignify by commenting on them.
"However, I deny Modi's allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore on Saturday night in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium.
"I called Mr Modi to ask why he was further delaying the approval of the franchise when all the legal requirements had been fulfilled. Modi had held up approval by the IPL of the franchisee agreement earlier in the day, by insisting on the reversal of a change in the document that he himself had earlier suggested. This change was made, the consortium members flew to Bangalore and met Mr Modi after that night's IPL game for what they had been told would be a routine exercise. Instead they were submitted to a barrage of questions which led some to suspect that Mr Modi was seeking a further excuse to delay approval. This was the reason for my intervention with Mr Modi. Had he conducted himself in good faith throughout, no call would have been necessary.
"On the question of my interests in the franchise, I repeat that I am proud to have helped the consortium come to Kerala. I have neither invested nor received a rupee for my mentorship of the team. Whatever my personal relationships with any of the consortium members, I do not intend to benefit in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage.
"A Kerala IPL team is a dream of many young people in and from the State. It has the potential to bring great material and psychological benefits to Kerala's economy and society. The unethical efforts that have been made by Mr Modi and others to thwart the Kerala franchise which had been won fair and square in a transparent bidding process are disgraceful. It has been clear for some time that the real motive is to assign this IPL team elsewhere than Kerala. All of us in Kerala hope that the BCCI will not permit statements and activities which seek to discredit the Kerala team before it has even had a chance to prove its worth. The public attempts by Mr Modi to besmirch the consortium in fact bring the IPL itself into disrepute."
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