New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI): Shashi Tharoor tonight resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs after the high-level Congress Core Group decided that he should quit in the wake of controversy over the IPL Kochi franchise, capping a week-long drama that threatened to suck the government and the party into it.
54-year old Tharoor, a newcomer to politics from international diplomacy, was summoned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to his residence late tonight and asked to tender his resignation.
"Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs has submitted his resignation from the Council of Ministers to the Prime Minister today. The Prime Minister has forwarded his resignation letter to the President with a recommendation that it be accepted," PMO spokesman said tonight.
Tharoor, a writer and a former Under Secretary General in the United Nations, earns the dubious distinction of becoming the first minister in the UPA-II to go under the cloud of corruption charges.
The continuance of Tharoor, a first time MP from Thiruvananthapuram who courted controversies throughout his 11-month stint, became untenable in the government ever since the IPL controversy exploded.
He got into serious problems after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's friend Sunanda Pushkar had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), heading the consortium that owns the Kochi team.
It was later disclosed that Pushkar got sweat equity of the value of Rs 70 crore RSW following which the opposition has been gunning for his removal on the ground that it was misuse of office for pecuniary gain.
That Pushkar today offered to surrender the sweat equity and to quit RSW failed to convince the Congress top brass which met at the residence of the Prime Minister in the evening to finalise its strategy before Parliament resumes tomorrow after the week-end.
Singh, who met Gandhi one-on-one before the Core Group discussions, consulted her again before recommending the resignation to the President.
Tharoor's meeting with the Prime Minister in the night was the second during the day. He met him at noon to explain his side of the story.
Tharoor: From youngest doctorate at Tufts to beleaguered minister
Shashi Tharoor, who Sunday quit as the minister of state for external affairs following an ugly IPL financial row, was the youngest doctorate at 22 at Tufts University in the US.
The following is the brief bio of the former UN diplomat who went on to contest election for the UN Secretary General in 2006:
- Tharoor was born in London March 9, 1956.
- Educated in Kerala, Mumbai and Kolkata. Graduated from St. Stephen’s college in Delhi.
- He has two masters and a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, US. He became the youngest doctorate at Tufts at 22, with doctoral thesis on "Reasons of State".
- He joined the United Nations in 1978, rising to become under secretary general for communications and public information in 2001.
- He was nominated by India for the post of UN Secretary General in 2006. He lost to South Korea’s Ban Ki-Moon. Left the UN April 1, 2007.
- Tharoor contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election on a Congress party ticket from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and won by a margin of 100,000 votes.
- He was sworn-in minister of state May 28, 2009.