Shashi Tharoor Quits

Shashi Tharoor stepped down, at last, when it was apparent that the Congress core committee wouldn’t take him at face value again. A brief stint, which lasted only 11 months, has ended, rather ignominously for a famed former international civil servant.

He was one of the under-Secretaries-General and an able guy in Kofi Annan’s team. His track record at the U.N was impeccable and the nation’s hopes rested on him when he unsuccessfully tried to be in the race for U.N Secretary General when Annan retired. Tharoor’s chances were dim, right from the start in a skewed scenario where China exercised the power of veto. It soon became clear that China will fulfill the wishes of its bosom-friend, Pakistan to oppose Tharoor and he backed down and left the U.N.

Every one thought that Tharoor will go back to the one activity he cherishes, which is literature. We expected more novels from him and was surprised (shocked, rather) when he lobbied and obtained a seat to contest from Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary constituency in the 2009 General Elections. Congress appealed to vote for the future Foreign Minister of India while the opponents wanted to reject the ‘new guy’ who was not in touch with the common man and the way the politics was handled in the country. Tharoor got elected by a thumping majority of nearly one-lakh votes. He was in for a little disappointment when the Prime Minister appointed Mr. S M Krishna, the former Chief Minister of Karnataka as the boss of Tharoor who was made only a Minister-of-State for External Affairs. From the attitudes of both stalwarts, it was clear that Krishna didn’t give Tharoor any leeway in conducting the business of foreign relations.

The first strike came when the media projected the news that Tharoor and his boss was staying in five-star hotels at government cost, when it was calling for austerity measures in the wake of the global economic crisis. Tharoor responded that he was paying his own money for the stay, but it didn’t sink in well with the public. Tharoor was very fond of publishing tweets in Twitter. It could be seen that he was tweeting even while on the move. There were two or three unfortunate incidents when his tweets were construed to be against the government’s stated policy and caused much embarrassment to the party bosses. As part of the government’s cost cutting procedures, every minister was expected to travel in economy class, which he likened to ‘Cattle class’ in one of the tweets. This caused an uproar and even his followers got the first hint that he’s not identifying himself with the ‘common man’ which was Congress’ mantra for the elections. He properly apologised.

Tharoor’s tweets again created PR nightmares when he offered Saudi Arabia the status of an interlocutor for the vexed Kashmir issue with Pakistan. At the ministerial level, it was becoming evident that this former U.N heavyweight was underperforming as he miserably failed to make any impression at all as a Minister-of-State!

Tharoor met his Waterloo in the IPL auction. The managing committee of the Indian Premier League had decided to add two more teams to the lineup and many states campaigned actively to form a team. It is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals like us to know what was happening behind the screens of these ‘deliberations’. Tharoor virtually pulled a rabbit of the hat when a startup firm ‘Rendezvous Consortium’ was awarded the opportunity to form a team at Kochi, Kerala. Many of the directors were not even acquainted with each other and suspicions were aroused at every level regarding the role of the minister in these murky deals and who was behind the assemblage of this motley crowd. Matters suddenly gained momentum when it was known that Sunanda Pushkar, a business-woman from the Middle East would be allotted equities worth Rs. 70 crores for her efforts in inking the deal. Rumours appeared that Tharoor was going to marry her after divorcing his second wife who was an American.

Even though Tharoor bravely rejected all accusations against him and denied the rumours connecting him with Ms Pushkar, the Congress was finding it difficult to accommodate such a man who was proving to be a magnet for controversies. When the opposition put up a combined protest against the Minister, his fate was sealed. As the government was anxious to prevent any tie-up among the prominent opposition parties, it had no choice, but to ask him to put in his papers, which he did on Sunday, April 18, 2010 ending the ministerial career which lasted a little less than 11 months.

The people are waiting for new gambits from him, as he has declared that he won’t give up the position of the Member of Parliament. Tharoor, being Tharoor can’t stay idle for long and we can rightfully surmise that he’d soon appear again with another card up his sleeve!