New Delhi, April 20: Shashi Tharoor, who quit his ministerial post over alleged links to the IPL Kochi franchise, said in the Lok Sabha Tuesday that his “conscience is clear” and that he had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to have the charges against him thoroughly probed.
“I am deeply wounded by fanciful and malicious charges against me and want to clear my name that has been besmirched,” Tharoor, with a tri-colour shawl draped round his shoulders, told the Lok Sabha amid pin-drop silence.
“My conscience is clear. I have done nothing improper or unethical, least of all illegal. I am new to Indian politics, but I have a long track record in public life unblemished by financial irregularities,” he pointed out, adding, “I have requested Prime Minister to have charges against me thoroughly investigated and my name cleared.”
Praising the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi; Tharoor said, “It has been a great privilege to serve the party and government and I don’t want to embarrass the government in any way.”
“My conscience is clear. I have done nothing improper or unethical, least of all illegal,” Tharoor stressed.
He also made it a point to also thank people of Thiruvanthapuram for having elected him as their representative and stressed that Kerala’s interests are and will always be foremost for him.
The decision of Tharoor making a statement was taken on Monday after he met party’s top brass Pranab Mukherjee, AK Antony and P Chidambaram, who reportedly vetted the statement and approved of it.
He also met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi this morning, just before making the statement in the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Income Tax (I-T) department has given a clean chit to Tharoor, and said he did not benefit from the Kochi -IPL deal, even as it continues to probe IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi’s financal dealings.
Tharoor landed in trouble after Modi tweeted to reveal that Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of Tharoor, had been gifted sweat equity worth Rs.70 crores in the new Kochi team, which was sold for Rs.1530 crores last month.
Modi in his email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Shashank Manohar had stated it was Tharoor who called him and instructed him not to reveal the identities of the stakeholders of the Kochi IPL franchisee.
Tharoor said he had ‘enough’ of the controversy and denied securing any monetary interest in the Kochi IPL team.
—-IANS