New Delhi: Businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar on Sunday "voluntarily" surrendered her ‘sweat equity’ worth Rs 70 crore in the Kochi IPL franchise--a decision analysts say is an attempt to reduce pressure on her friend Union Minister Shashi Tharoor.
Pushkar, who is based in Dubai, announced this shortly after Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, explained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh his controversial role in "mentoring" the Kochi franchise.
Pushkar, 48, said in a statement she took the decision to forego her share in the IPL team because she was shocked to find "certain vested interests" questioning her credentials and because of the "unpleasant publicity".
"As a woman professional, I am shocked to find how easily certain parties with vested interests, questioned my credentials mainly because I am a woman. I, therefore, voluntarily offer to return to Rendezvous the sweat equity they had offered me,” she said in a statement to Rendezvous Sports, one of the owners of Kochi IPL.
"I do not intend to seek compensation for the efforts I have made so far for them. As a mother of a half-Malayali son, I wish Kerala cricket well and I hope this team succeeds handsomely in IPL-4 and in the years to come," she said.
"Given the deeply unpleasant publicity surrounding my involvement however, I can no longer imagine being able to find the enthusiasm required to associate myself with any IPL activity in foreseeable future."
The statement, read out to media by Pushkar's lawyer Ashish Mehta, said she had been looking forward to "contributing over the next ten years to building the team's brand, organizing events for it and marketing the team in India and the Gulf in particular".
Mehta said the decision was taken on Saturday but could not be released because he "wasn't available for consultations with my client".
"It has got nothing to do with Tharoor. If that was the case, the controversy has been going on for a week, she should have given up almost a week ago," Mehta said.
Tharoor has rejected allegations that he has a financial stake in the Kochi IPL, which gave 19 per cent (Rs 70 crore) of the 25 per cent free equity of Rendezvous to Pushkar as she was a professional businesswoman.
The Bharatiya Janata Party rejected Pushkar’s announcement and insisted that Tharoor resign from his post. “One cannot remove the stain of corruption and if she intends to, then it makes clear of Tharoor’s control over her. It is the violation of the company law and the patent fraud,” said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
"We demand that the Prime Minister sack Shashi Tharoor immediately. It is a not a case of sweat equity at all," said Prasad. "The stain of corruption is not washed by return of bribe money."
Comments
0 comment