Houses stalled,Oppn asks Tharoor to quit

In Lok Sabha,Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House as Opposition members stormed the well,shouting Shashi Tharoor istifa do,Shashi Tharoor sharam karo. The treasury benches were full,but none of his party colleagues tried to counter the Opposition offensive the way they routinely do.

After Sharad Yadav of JD(U),Basudeb Acharia of CPM,Murli Manohar Joshi and Gopinath Munde of BJP stood to protest,Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said: I will inform the minister concerned. He will come at 12 (noon) and make a statement.

Meanwhile,SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav arrived in the House and gestured to his party members to come into the well. BJP,JD(U) and Shiv Sena MPs followed suit.

The Speaker made an abortive attempt to go ahead with Question Hour,but adjourned the House due to turmoil. The statement came an hour later after the House re-assembled. However,normalcy eluded the House and the Speaker adjourned it for the second time. The final adjournment came within a few minutes after lunch.

In Rajya Sabha,BJP deputy leader S S Ahluwalia and his party colleague Venkaiah Naidu insisted on a full-fledged discussion. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prithviraj Chavan told the Opposition that the minister was ready to make a statement. Deputy Chairman Rahman Khan offered to allow a discussion during Zero Hour,but the Opposition,calling for a proper discussion,trooped into the well,forcing adjournment for the day.

Though Bansal announced during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha that Tharoor will make a statement in the House before taking up private members business,he subsequently stated that he will give a personal explanation. The statement mentioned Tharoor as an MP.

I have not benefited,and do not intend to benefit,in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage, Tharoor read out the statement to the media later. The notion that somebody is some sort of proxy for me is frankly insulting to me and to the professionalism and business ethics of the investors and their associates,particularly since I could not have any role in influencing the final outcome of a sealed bidding process.

On Sunanda Pushkar,he said,It is unworthy of any member of this august House to imply that a reputed business professional and entrepreneur with a long track record of business success can,because of her gender,only be seen as a front for someone else.

He said his role in mentoring the Kerala consortium was within the bounds of appropriate conduct of a member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram and a member of the Union Council of Ministers.

If I were Tharoor,I wouldve quit,says Farooq

New Delhi: Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and IPL Governing Council member Farooq Abdullah on Friday said Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor would have done the right thing had he resigned from his post in view of the allegations against him on the Kochi-IPL issue. He also said he was all for the BCCI to step in and clean the system.

I dont know what is on Tharoors mind. But,if I was in his place,I would have certainly resigned, Abdullah told The Indian Express.

Chidambarams stature grew after he put in his papers to the PM after the Naxal attack in Dantewada. Does it mean that he was responsible for the attack? No. But,he still resigned. I believe Tharoor could also have followed his example. But then,I cant speak for him, he added.

Asked if he would raise the issue of Tharoor-Modi tussle at the April 23 meeting of the BCCI at Dharamsala,Abdullah said,Certainly,the issue will be discussed and the BCCI would have to show the way forward. It (BCCI) has a duty to the nation to keep the game clean and ensure that everything is overboard, he said. On whether the IPL Governing Council should make public the details of the remaining franchisee owners,Abdullah said,Why not? ….I strongly feel the public has a right to know everything.