Behind and beyond Tharoor

The resignation of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor ends an unsavoury chapter in the politico-cricket scandal set off by his lobbying for the Kochi franchise in the Indian Premier League. Although belated and coming after much false protestation, the resignation may help the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government blunt some of the Opposition's attacks in Parliament. But it does little to address popular misgivings about misuse of public office by Ministers in search of private advantage. That Mr. Tharoor's “mentoring” of the bid for the franchise ended in a windfall for his partner, Sunanda Pushkar, is not in dispute. Mr. Tharoor allegedly went much further: he is even accused of negotiating the percentage of her 'sweat equity' in the consortium that successfully bid for the franchise, Rendezvous Sports World. Although Ms Pushkar has now offered to surrender her windfall, this does not undo what constitutes, prima facie, a corrupt practice by a public servant prosecutable under Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. Actually, the assignment of free equity to Ms Pushkar suffers from more than one legal infirmity. Under the Companies Act, sweat equity shares are equity shares issued only to employees or directors of a company for consideration other than cash for providing know-how or making available rights in the nature of intellectual property rights or value additions. Further, at the date of the issue of sweat equity shares, not less than one year should have elapsed from the date on which the company was entitled to commence business.

But the rot clearly goes beyond Mr. Tharoor and Ms Pushkar to the very core of the IPL. Allegations have been made that the process of bidding for franchises suffered from something like insider trading. There are also conflicts of interest among those serving on the IPL's Governing Council. Chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi certainly did enough to provoke the Income Tax department to carry out a survey on the IPL's funding. The murky practices go hand in hand with a lack of transparency about franchise ownership and sources of funding. With franchise agreements incorporating confidentiality clauses, truth, as happened in the case of the Kochi franchise, is in the open only when a vested interest outs it. There is need for an immediate enquiry or investigation, if necessary by the Central Bureau of Investigation, into Mr. Tharoor's egregious acts of ministerial misconduct. But the interests of justice will be served only if this goes beyond the Kochi franchise into the layers of corrupt and questionable practices involving big business and powerful politicians in Indian cricket's money-spinning, iconic show.