Rediff.com takes a look at some recent high-profile resignations by politicians who went blue in the face proclaiming their innocence.
It is final. Shashi Tharoor is quitting the government. At last, the minister of state for external affairs is bowing out under the pressure from the Congress party.
Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to show Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor the door on Sunday evening.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, who is embroiled in a row over the ownership of Indian Premier League's Kochi franchise, on Sunday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apparently to explain his position on the issue.
Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentary party chief L K Advani on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Shashi Tharoor in the wake of the minister of state for external affairs getting embroiled in the Kochi IPL team ownership controversy. "The prime minister must drop Shashi Tharoor from the council of ministers because of gross impropriety unbecoming of the office he is occupying," Advani said.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's powers are set to be curtailed considerably as the move to clip his wings gained momentum at an informal BCCI meeting in Dharamshala where the Board's top brass discussed the Kochi franchise ownership row.
Making it amply clear that IPL chairman Lalit Modi will have to face some tough questions at the upcoming BCCI Working Committee meeting, JKCA president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said there are some "issues" that need to be sorted out.
A top six-page secret Intelligence Bureau report on the Shashi Tharoor controversy has advised the Centre to arrive at a political decision, pressing the Minister of State for External Affairs to resign, sources have said.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, in a statement in the Parliament on Friday, rejected the Opposition's demands for his resignation by asserting that the allegations against him on the Indian Premier League issue were 'baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated'.
Both Houses of Parliament had to be adjourned on Friday during Question Hour after Opposition parties created an uproar demanding that Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor submit his resignation over the Kochi IPL ownership controversy.
Shashi Tharoor on Friday rejected the Opposition's demands for his resignation as minister of state for external affairs by asserting that the allegations against him on the IPL issue were 'baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated'. "The real motive behind the public controversy that has been created around me is to make the Kochi team unviable and to assign this IPL franchise to elsewhere than Kerala," he said in a statement tabled in the Lok Sabha.
Sources say that there are serious reservations over the style of functioning of Lalit Modi who appears to have become "more and more high handed and autocratic" with each passing day and one option being considered is to appoint a full time paid professional IPL commissioner to run the league with Modi being made the chairman with much less powers.
The second phase of the Budget session of Parliament commenced on Thursday with all the attention turning on Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
Rejecting speculation that Shashi Tharoor was asked to step down during his meeting with senior Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, sources close to the Minister of State for External Affairs said on Wednesday night that things were "okay" on the issue.
The Shashi Tharoor-Lalit Modi stand-off over the Kochi IPL team reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with a petition seeking a CBI probe into the Union Minister's alleged proxy stakes in the Rs 1533-crore franchise, won by a consortium, Rendezvous Sports World. Alternatively, the petition urged the apex court to constitute a special investigation team to probe the allegations.
The Congress rejected as absurd the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand that Union Minister Shashi Tharoor be sacked over the IPL controversy and said it was up to the cricket board to decide on allegations of impropriety over his role in the Kochi IPL team.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded the sacking of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in the wake of controversy over Indian Premeir League's Kochi team ownership.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi disclosed the names of the free equity holders in the little-known RSW, which coughed up approximately Rs 1533 crore to bag the Kochi franchise, a move that put Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in a spot of bother, as Sunanda Pushkar, the lady he is reportedly planning to marry, figures in the list.
Sources close to the 54-year old Tharoor declined to comment on the reports, urging the media to respect his privacy. "He will announce whatever, when he has something to announce," the sources said. Media reports said Tharoor proposed to marry Sunanda, a girl from a Kashmiri family. Trained as a beautician, Sunanda runs a spa and has lived in Dubai.
The vexed boundary dispute will not affect the Sino-Indian ties, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said on Saturday.
Continuing his attack on the Congress, he said efforts to stop the 'leakage' could have been made earlier as well but there was no intention and will power.
The government on Thursday said documents related to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's visa were yet to be traced while those of his associate Tahawwur Rana had been found, contradicting claims by Indian Consulate in Chicago that no papers had gone missing.
She said that settlement of claims will take time and that there was no point in waiting in Saudi Arabia indefinitely.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that he had asked Saudi Arabia to use its "good offices" to persuade Pakistan to desist from the path of terror.
Welcoming the ban on terrorist organisations in Pakistan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said India expects Islamabad to fulfill its commitment to take action against perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including Hafeez Saeed.
K Karunakaran, the former chief minister of Kerala, who was hospitalised in a critical condition has now started meeting and talking to people, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor who met the veteran leader told media persons on Saturday.
"Government is aware that China is developing infrastructure in border regions opposite India in the Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions," Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told Rajya Sabha.
Saudi Arabia has also set up a crisis management group to address difficulties being faced by the jobless Indian workers.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations under-secretary general, made an unscheduled visit to quake-hit Haiti over the weekend, meeting with the survivors of the calamity, the Indian peacekeepers as well as the Caribbean nation's President, Rene Garcia Preval at his makeshift home.
India has no role in insurgency in Pakistan's Balochistan province and unlike 'certain other countries' it does not follow the policy of destabilising its neighbours, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said on Thursday.
According to an official in the finance ministry, Pushkar, if an employee of Rendezvous, would have to pay 33 per cent perquisite tax. Otherwise, she is liable to pay gift tax under section 56 of the Income Tax Act, since the shares were given to her without taking any consideration (compensation). "The value of shares will be determined by a merchant banker if it is a perquisite tax," the official said.
Kenney Jacob, an online supporter, has been a very active campaigner and feels that Shashi Tharoor is 'nothing but a victim.' He spoke to rediff.co's Vicky Nanjappa about the page, and how Tharoor is trending online today:
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late on Sunday night, the second time in a day, amidst speculation that he may resign.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Sunday exuded confidence of resolving the controversy over ownership of Kochi franchise saying he had no personal issue either with the team owners or Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in New Delhi on Sunday night on her maiden visit, which India sees as "a path-breaking and historic opportunity" to forge a "new and forward-looking" relationship amid hopes that its security concerns would be addressed.
Sunanda Pushkar, the woman at the centre of a ownership controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL franchise, is considering filing for damages and has hired a Dubai-based lawyer for the purpose.
Beleaguered Minister for State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday amidst indications that he may get a reprieve at least, for the time being.
Sunanda Pushkar on Wednesday strongly denied media reports that she is acting as a proxy for Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in the Kochi IPL franchise. She also came out strongly in support of Tharoor, who has come under fire from several quarters, following his spat with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi over the Kochi team.
Speaking on the IPL controversy involving Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that he had to ascertain all the facts after he returned to India on April 17, before taking any action in the matter.When he was asked if Tharoor would be sacked over the Kochi IPL team controversy, the PM said, "I have heard about these things. I don't have all the facts before me and when I go back, I will get all the facts."
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