Manmohan, Sonia to decide Tharoor's fate soon

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh back in the capital from his visit to USA and Brazil, the Congress leadership is likely to decide the fate of Shashi Tharoor, the junior foreign minister, in the next couple of days.

Tharoor is under fire because of the large sweat equity given to Sunanda Pushkar, who the minister plans to marry, by the Kochi franchisee of the Indian Premier League. A section of the Congress, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony, has advised party chief Sonia Gandhi to take a decision quickly.

Gandhi and Singh were to meet Saturday evening to decide about Tharoor. But the meeting didn’t happen and the two leaders are likely to meet Sunday. Tharoor too had been waiting to meet Singh but, according to sources in the prime minister’s office, no appointment has been finalised for him so far.

Meanwhile, on his way back to Delhi, on board his special aircraft, Singh was non-committal on the Tharoor issue. “In politics, ups and downs keep happening,” was all he said. According to a Congress source, Mukherjee and Antony had advised Tharoor to voluntarily step down and wait till his name gets cleared, but Tharoor maintained that he is innocent.

If at all Tharoor is asked to step down, the party is undecided about the timing of his removal from the cabinet. Some feel that he should be axed in the first reshuffle of the cabinet, which is expected in July. Others feel that if he is perceived as guilty, then the party should not wait and give more ammunition to the opposition that is already up in arms against the government on a host of issues.