Combative Tharoor denies Modi charges, says won't resign

Embattled Shashi Tharoor Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday said he would not oblige his critics by resigning as he had done no wrong in the billowing controversy over the Kochi IPL franchise As the crackling mixture of politics sports money and sleaze gripped a cricketcrazy nations collective attention even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to promise from Washington full inquiry into the matter If I had done anything wrong I would have resigned To resign because people have chosen to deliberately misrepresent you or misperceive you means that you are giving more importance to other peoples perception than to your own character and your own integrity I am not going to resign Tharoor told NDTV in a halfhour long interview Commenting for the first time since the controversy broke out two days ago Manmohan Singh said in Washington that he was not aware of the facts of the case I dont have all the facts When I go back I will get the facts and will take action if required he told journalists We cant go by hearsay and media reports The prime ministers remarks came a day ahead of the resumption of the budget session of the Indian parliament where the opposition is determined to corner the government over the IPL controversy Tharoor asserted in his interview telecast live on the channel that the charges were motivated by political and business interests In fact the fact of the matter is I have done nothing wrong I stand with my head held high he added Tharoor said that he will brief both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the matter Tharoor added that his involvement with the IPL team had nothing whatsoever to do with Sunanda Pushkar who has a stake in the company that is a coowner of IPL Kochi franchise and with whom he has only been recently close On Wednesday the Communist Party of IndiaMarxist CPIM and the Communist Party of India CPI echoed the Bharatiya Janata Partys BJP demand that Tharoor be thrown out of the Manmohan Singh ministry The BJP went even further asking for the prime minister to sack Tharoor without waiting for evidence Everything is now in the public domain By abusing his ministerial position and authority Tharoor ensured that his friend Sunanda Pushkar is richer by Rs7075 crore without investing anything BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here IPL commissioner Modi stuck to his position saying there was a question mark over the ownership of Kerala team Tharoor called me and asked me to keep the identity of Sunanda Pushkar under wraps The conversation with Tharoor is minuted he said He also dismissed reports that he had offered money to the consortium to not bid for the Kerala team I never made a 50 million dollar bribe said Modi Earlier in the day Pushkar also hit out at her critics and denied being a proxy to the minister Breaking her silence Pushkar said My own business interests and assets are substantial and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend Pushkar said she had been contacted by Rendezvous Sports World one of the consortium members of the Kochi IPL franchise to take advantage of my extensive international experience as a business executive marketing manager and entrepreneur Because this is a startup effort I was told that in lieu of a salary they would grant me minor equity in Rendezvous in return for my efforts a common practice across the world for projects of this nature Modi made an explosive revelation Sunday that Pushkar had got free equity in the Kerala franchise worth Rs70 crore around 15 million Tharoor a former UN official who joined the Congress last year and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram has been under the scanner ever since he became a minister The Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT said that the Directorate General of Investigation in Kochi had ordered a probe to ascertain if money had been channelled illegally into the Kochi IPL team from tax havens abroad