New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Tuesday angrily rejected charges of impropriety as his row with Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit K. Modi intensified over the Kochi franchisee and his own friendship with a Kashmiri woman, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding his sacking from the government.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it would convene a meeting of the IPL Governing Council to discuss the free-for-all after Modi accused Tharoor of telling him not to reveal the stakeholder pattern of one of the partners in a consortium that won the IPL Kochi franchisee and the minister rejected the accusation.
Modi had made the explosive revelation in his tweets Monday, clearly linking Tharoor, a former high-ranking UN official, with Rendezvous Sports World, the controversial partner in the consortium.
On Tuesday, Tharoor issued a detailed statement, claiming that Modi had acted in "bad faith" in a bid to transfer the IPL franchisee from Kerala, the minister's home state, to some other place. "It has been clear for some time that the real motive is to assign this IPL team elsewhere than Kerala," he said.
Tharoor denied having asked Modi not to reveal the identity of the stakeholders of Rendezvous, especially of Sunanda Pushkar, a woman who the minister admitted he knew well. Pushkar had 17 percent 'free' equity in the Kochi team, which was bought for Rs.1,530 crore.
Claiming that Modi held up approval to the franchisee agreement, Tharoor said that the consortium members had flown down to Bangalore to meet Modi 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 Modi was seeking a further excuse to delay approval. This was the reason for my intervention with Modi. Had he conducted himself in good faith throughout, no call would have been necessary," Tharoor said.
He described Modi's behaviour as "unethical" and said it was aimed at spiking the Kerala franchisee.
BCCI vice-president and spokesman Rajiv Shukla said Tuesday that board president Shashank Manohar would call a meeting of the IPL governing body considering the seriousness of the controversy.
Shukla also delinked the ruling Congress from Tharoor on the row, saying the party has nothing to do with it and that it was a matter between Modi and the minister.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi met External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Tharoor's boss, at her residence in the afternoon. But it was not clear if they discussed IPL and Tharoor's role.
The BJP went on the offensive, urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is now in the US, to sack Tharoor and order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Kochi deal.
"The BJP is of the clear opinion that Tharoor cannot continue in the government even for a moment after this gross impropriety. The prime minister should immediately sack him and order a criminal inquiry into the deal," said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The BJP alleged that Thaoor had misused his official position to secure a stake in the IPL deal for his friend Pushkar. The minister has admitted he played the role of a mentor and helped the consortium grab the Kochi franchise but denied he had gained in any manner.
Pushkar has a shareholding worth Rs.70 crore in IPL Kochi. The BJP said she got the share "without paying because she is close to Tharoor". It said Pushkar was not a known businesswoman and had admittedly rendered no service to cricket or to the Kochi franchise.
Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed put up a weak defence of Thaoor, saying "as a MP from Kerala, his desire to have an IPL team from there is not illogical or unwarranted".