Shashi Tharoor, following his forced resignation after corruption charges levelled against him in the IPL 2010 controversy, made a statement in the Lok Sabha at 12:30pm today, after being invited by the Congress chiefs. He requested that his name be cleared, and that a thorough probe be initiated into the allegations against him.
Tharoor said he was deeply wounded by the malicious charges against him. He said he was "new to Indian politics, but he had a long record of clean public service unblemished by the faintest tint of financial irregularity".
Clarifying that he resigned because he did not want to be "an embarrassment" to the government, he wished that after his statement today, no further disruptions will occur in the parliament on the issue.
It all started when Lalit Modi - commissioner of the Indian Premier League - alleged on Twitter that Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of Tharoor, had been gifted sweat equity worth Rs 70 crore in the
newly-formed Kochi IPL team. The Kochi team was sold for Rs. 1530 crore in March this year.
Modi has support from Rajasthan Royals' co-owner Shilpa Shetty and Royal Challengers Bangolore's owner Vijay Mallya. They credit Modi with the phenomenal success of the Indian Premier League as well as the international fame and recognition it bought to the nation.
Moreover, Union Minister for New And Renewable Energy and IPL governing council member, Farooq Abdullah, also spoke out for Modi, questioning why he should leave considering the tremendous success that was engineered by the IPL Commissioner.