Tharoor's rise and fall

It was around this time last year that Shashi Tharoor, 54 - distinguished author, international diplomat and savvy speaker at global forums -parachuted into the hurly burly of Indian politics. Offering a refreshing alternative to the dhoti-swathed, betel-chewing Indian politician, Tharoor’s political debut saw him garner a sizeable mandate from his southern home town of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. He was subsequently welcomed with warmth into the prime minister’s charmed clique.

However, this month — barely 11 months into his tenure as minister of state for external affairs — Tharoor witnessed that famous warmth turn into catatonic heat as a result of a high-profile scandal involving allegations of corruption and his misuse of office to win a bid for an Indian Premier League (IPL) team.

As the controversy unravelled, tumbling out came unsavoury details of how the minister had pulled strings to help his associate — Dubai-based socialite Sunanda Pushkar (allegedly a proxy for him) — secure sweat equity worth a whopping Rs700 million (about Dh59 million) in the Kochi IPL team.

What sparked the controversy was IPL’s feisty chief, Lalit Modi, publishing details of the Kochi-IPL team’s franchise owners, Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), on his twitter account. Modi emphasised that he had been pressured by an "influential union minister" to not divulge any details of Pushkar's financial deals with the Kochi IPL team.

As the murky details surfaced, the opposition bayed for Tharoor's blood. Pressure from the media and political parties ratcheted up. Tharoor denied that he had made financial gains from the sale and rubbished the claim that he had "pressured" Modi in any way.

In fact, he accused the latter of trying to delay the deal and discredit the new owners so that the franchise could be awarded to someone else. RSW protested Modi’s breach of confidentiality agreement. In the ensuing brouhaha, Pushkar also issued a statement denying she was Tharoor’s proxy and giving up the sweat equity offered to her by RSW.

However, this 'sacrifice' came too late. The surrender of equity highlighted Tharoor's complicity in the affair and he was removed from the Cabinet and forced to resign on Sunday. And thus ended the diplomat-author’s uneasy dalliance with the foreign ministry.

Not that it was ever smooth sailing for Tharoor in the first place. In fact, few are surprised by Tharoor's unceremonious exit as his fall from grace was spectacularly self-engineered. With irreverent tweets, his stay at a five-star hotel during the government’s austerity drive last year, his remarks mocking Nehruvian foreign policy and his criticism of the government’s visa restrictions, Tharoor flitted from one controversy to another.

He also seemed disdainful of the very system that he was part of.
Ironically, while bragging about changing the system, he himself got sucked into the vortex of corruption and deal mongering. If he was a seasoned diplomat, who had hobnobbed with the crème de la crème of global diplomacy for three decades, he did not show it.

This was despite his hugely impressive professional trajectory. Fluent in many languages, including French, Tharoor has penned 11 bestsellers, many of which have gone on to bag national and international awards. He is also the recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and holds an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University of Puget Sound. An alumni of the blue-chip Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and St Stephen’s College in Delhi, he was the poster boy for young and aspiring Indian politicians.

He had an equally rewarding career at the United Nations, beginning in 1978 as commissioner for refugees in Geneva. He then moved up the ladder by being designated a senior adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Anan. He left the UN after losing as India’s official candidate for the post of secretary general after losing to Ban Ki-moon. He then joined Dubai-based Afras Ventures, which seeks to promote foreign investment in India.

Then began Tharoor’s arduous journey in Indian politics. Undeniably, it was the promise of change that he held out to the educated Indian middle class that enabled people to connect with him. They thought he would rejuvenate Indian politics with interesting ideas, bringing positive change, better education, empowerment and an enabling environment.

And that's what makes Tharoor’s infraction so unpardonable: He reneged on his promise and has eroded not only his own credibility but also damaged the very idea that a successful 'outsider' could feasibly change the rules of Indian politics.

However, to be fair, the former minister did employ the new media effectively to some extent towards the end of his political career. His political website and twitter had earned him celebrity status. In fact, he was the first Indian celebrity to have 100,000 followers on twitter, and currently boasts a following of over 700,000, way ahead of top Bollywood stars such as Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan.

However, his twitter posts often proved unpalatable for his government and were often used against him by the press and opposition parties.

That Tharoor didn’t think much of the country’s political class was evident. When a journalist asked him if he would travel economy class in keeping with Congress’ austerity drive, Tharoor’s reply was cheeky: "Yes, absolutely, in cattle class with all the holy cows!"

The irreverent reference to his colleagues triggered an uproar. But Tharoor got by one more time due to his closeness to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. In fact, when he met Gandhi after the cattle class row, she let him off the hook with a tepid "be careful in future".

Tharoor had once drawn an engaging parallel between India and America. "If America is a melting point," Tharoor said, "then to me India is a thali — a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast."

Ironically, Tharoor’s own placement in the Indian political thali has been far from savoury and has left a bitter aftertaste.

Neeta Lal is a New Delhi-based journalist