New Delhi, April 20: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule, daughter of Union Minister Sharad Pawar, on Tuesday said that neither her husband nor her father has any business link with the Indian Peremier League (IPL).
Sule, a Lok Sabha member, told news channels that her family had nothing to do with the controversy and that allegations that Civil Aviation Minister and NCP leader Praful Patel was also involved in the IPL franchise business were not true.
“My husband or my family has nothing to do with any of this (IPL bidding process or the IPL itself). We always stay miles away from it,” Sule said. The only association her family has is that of being avid cricket watchers, she added.
“I think we are all clear. It doesn’t really matter what people say … because I think at the end of the day your conviction matters,” she said.
Sule also said that it was unfair to say her father, who is also the former Indian cricket board chief and president-elect of the International Cricket Council (ICC), had defended only IPL chief Lalit Modi.
She said that Pawar defended not just Modi but also Shashi Tharoor, who has resigned as minister of state for external affairs in the wake of the IPL Kochi franchise controversy.
“It’s unfair to say that he only defended Lalit Modi …,” Sule added.
As for Patel, she said: “Everybody knows Praful bhai … Praful bhai is one of the most popular and most positive MPs and ministers in this country. He is loved by the entire nation. I see no reason for him to do (it)…It is not even his style.”
The row over the cash-rich IPL erupted after Modi revealed that Tharoor used his influence to benefit his close friend Sunanda Pushkar to get sweat equity in the IPL Kochi franchise.
Modi’s revelation on his Twitter came after last year’s Miss IPL Gabriela, a South African model, was given an extended visa despite Modi’s explicit wish against it.
—Agencies