The party, however, at first had appeared to defend the junior MEA minister, with AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed rejecting the Opposition BJP’s demand for Mr Tharoor’s removal, saying that would be “absurd”.
But in a quick turnaround, Mr Ahmed’s boss and Congress media department head Janardhan Dwivedi, who is also an AICC general secretary, categorically dissociated the party from the controversy surrounding Mr Tharoor. He said: “The party has nothing to do with all these. Let him explain. Let others explain what is the truth.”
As the row between Mr Tharoor and Mr Lalit Modi escalated through most of Tuesday, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna drove to 10 Janpath to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Afterwards, he drove past the journalists waiting outside Mrs Gandhi’s residence and did not answer any of their queries. What transpired at that meeting could not be established. Mrs Gandhi also called Congress MP Rajiv Shukla, who is also vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. But Mr Shukla later denied having discussed the Tharoor matter with the Congress president. “This issue was not discussed with her,” he said after meeting Mrs Gandhi.
Congress sources said there was some unease in the party over Mr Tharoor landing himself in one controversy after another that embarrassed the party. A senior AICC leader said: “Last time he was categorically told to be careful in his public discourse. Now let us see what happens.”
Speaking to reporters earlier, AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed had rejected suggestions that the latest controversy was an embarrassment to the party. Mr Ahmed said: “Not an embarrassment... As an elected member from Kerala, his (Tharoor’s) desire to have a team from there is not illogical or unwarranted.”
Observing that Kerala was the only southern state without an IPL team, he said all other southern states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had such teams. “The demand of the BJP is absurd... We appreciate the concern of Tharoor to have a team from Kerala, there is nothing wrong in it,” Mr Ahmed added.
Age Correspondent