You feel sad for the handsome Shashi Tharoor. He was asked to quit his job because his friend was given sweat equity in one of the franchises for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now, based on the furore over Agriculture Minister and former BCCI Chief Sharad Pawar, it appears that other powerful people were also looking at such franchises. While Pawar and his family have said the application was made by the head of the firm (in which they are part-owners) of his own accord, this is hardly tenable. Disgraced IPL chief Lalit Modi has added to this by making another set of allegations.
There are others within BCCI who own franchises anyway and no one sees any conflict of interest.
What Tharoor, and the same thing can be said for Modi, did not realise was that you need to have political cover. Pawar has political cover, so he can’t be touched.
Ashok Gupta, New Delhi
