New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Sunday night stepped down from his position, bowing to a simmering controversy over his alleged role in the gifting of a stake of a new Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team to his Dubai-based friend Sunanda Pushkar.
He handed over his resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the latter's 7 Race Course Road residence here. Singh accepted his resignation.
According to reports, Tharoor went to the PM's house in the night for a second round of meeting and handed over his resignation.
Tharoor had reportedly told the PM and Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi that he does not want to ‘embarrass’ the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in New Delhi.
“The PM has forwarded Tharoor’s resignation letter to President Pratibha Patil with a recommendation that it may be accepted,” a PMO spokesman told media.
Earlier in the day, Tharoor met PM for an hour and presented his side of the story on the IPL controversy.
But the Congress Core Committee was reportedly unhappy and they, after a two-hour meeting since evening, decided that Tharoor should resign.
The core group consists of the PM Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, AK Antony and Ahmed Patel.
“The government has taken a correct moral stand by asking Tharoor to resign. Every member of the party is aware of dharma,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told CNN-IBN.
Even as the Congress has been trying its best to avoid the controversy, the Opposition has demanded that the PM speak in the Parliament on the controversy.
India's principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said Tharoor must be removed from his position for “misusing” his office to favour his friend gain stake in an IPL team. The party also demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
BJP later dubbed the resignation a victory of truth.
Though Shashi Tharoor’s Dubai-based friend Sunanda Pushkar, the woman in the eye of the storm over her stake in the Kochi IPL team allegedly gotten with the influence of her close friend Tharoor, announced to surrender the Rs 70 crore stake that generated the ruckus, the BJP had said it would not stop protesting till Tharoor resigned.
“We are worried about the corrupt practice of the minister. It is that which we are against,” said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.
“Several laws of the Company Law Board has also been violated by this very act,” she said.
“We still stand by the position that the minister has misused his office and his post as cabinet minister is not tenable any more. He should leave the cabinet. The PM should remove him,” she said as BJP threatened to stall parliamentary proceedings over the issue.
There should be Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into this matter, she said.
“If we are interested in saving the parliamentary track then he should be moved,” she said, adding that Congress must not shield the minister who violated the code of practice.
Another BJP senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said what Tharoor did was a blatant violation of law.
“It is a stinking corruption,” he said.
Earlier during the day, Sunanda Pushkar's lawyer told NDTV that his client has decided to surrender the Rs 70-crore stake she was gifted by the consortium that bought the Kochi IPL team for Rs 1,530 crores last month.
Rendezvous Sports World of the Kochi consortium has been apprised of her decision, her lawyer said, adding that the decision was taken on Saturday itself but he could not communicate it to Rendezvous the day before.
While the decision of Sunanda Puskhar is viewed as her move to bail out close friend Tharoor, her lawyer said the decision has got nothing to do with the diplomat and writer turned politician.
Pushkar's lawyer, Ashish Mehta, read out a statement by his client to the channel, which said: "I am a professional with 20 years of experience. Given the deeply unpleasant publicity, I can no longer find the enthusiasm required to associate myself with any IPL activity in the foreseeable future."
Mehta said that Pushkar has returned her sweat equity voluntarily and seeks no compensation for services rendered so far.