Tharoor quits over cricket corruption claims

It all started with a tweet. Almost a week ago Lalit Modi, the chief of the Indian Premier League or IPL revealed details about the ownership of a new cricket league franchise on the social networking site Twitter.

Modi tweeted that junior Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor had helped put together a successful bid for the IPL's Kochi franchise which was bought by a consortium of businesspeople called Rendezvous Sports World Ltd and that a Dubai based businesswoman called Sunanda Pushkar, who is also a friend of Shashi Tharoor, had a stake in it.

No option but to resign

Tharoor denied any wrongdoing, insisting he only had helped 'mentoring' the bid. But the issue attracted a lot of media attention and sparked protests from the opposition parties, who demanded his resignation.

Political expert Mahesh Rangarajan says the incident had threatened to cast a shadow on the ruling party and the government, which had no option left but to ask Tharoor to resign.

"Personal lives of Indian politicians have almost never been a subject of media attention. But when there are personal relationships with individuals who also happen to have business interests and the minister appears to have played a role in promoting those interests and is unable to even convince his own party and government leadership that they should defend him, then obviously he has crossed the line."

Controversial political career

Following his long career as a UN diplomat, scholar and author, 54 year old Tharoor stood in the national poll last year. He became the MP for the well-known Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Tharoor, seen as a reformist politician, became one of the first few leaders to use social networking sites such as Twitter to put his message across to a mass audience. His outspoken and at times controversial tweets, which also included remarks about his own government's policies, earned him not just a large number of twitter followers, but also a host of critics.

His remarks also sparked debate about how far politicians should go in the public domain and where should they draw the line. Expert Rangarajan says, "It is not the fact that Tharoor twitters, but some times the kind of language that he used which got him into controversy. And this time, I think it was a serious error of judgement."

IPL probe

Tharoor's associate Sunanda Pushkar has meanwhile surrendered her stake in the new franchise.

But the case seems to have opened a veritable pandora's box. The opposition parties claim the Indian Premier League itself is a front for illicit gambling. The government says it has launched an investigation into the matter. Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed parliament on Monday. "I can assure all honorable members that all aspects of IPL including its sources of funding and how these funds were routed and invested will be looked into," said Mukherjee. "No wrong-doers will be spared."

IPL chief Lalit Modi has also come under scrutiny. Tax officials have already visited IPL offices in Mumbai and questioned Modi, who denies all the allegations, calling them an "attempt to discredit the Indian Premier League."

Author: Disha Uppal

Editor: Grahame Lucas