Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, resigned late night on April 18 2010. His resignation brings to end only one part of the drama that is being played out at ‘Theatre IPL‘. Tharoor’s friend, Sunanda Pushkar, had earlier in the day withdrawn her association with Kochi IPL and many do believe that this was an admission of guilt, and not a face-saving-exercise.
Tharoor, the international diplomat, would surely be wondering on his judgement that made him join the murky political arena of Indian politics. It is a fact that politicians build empires as huge as their election promises, within a few months into being elected by the masses. The only differentiating factor in this case is that the politician in question is a great author and has an impressive background in international diplomacy to back his words. The question, whether Tharoor was guilty of what he is supposed to have done, is yet to be answered.

In all this hullabaloo, there is one more person who appears to have been, and will be, screwed the most. Lalit Modi, Commissioner of Indian Premier League (IPL), seems to have bitten more than he, or his entire clan could chew. The Economic Times had its cover page plastered on April 19 2010 with details of an Income Tax investigation report that looked into the dark world of Modi’s business deals. A jump from Rs 32 lakh to Rs 11 crore as income tax for years 2008-09 and 2009-2010 respectively, is a pointer enough, to raise the red flag against Mr. Modi.

It seems that Mr. Modi was involved in betting (read match fixing) and money laundering and even had indirect stake in Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. There sure is a lot of dirt that will come out on this one. The media should rejoice, as they will get uninterrupted ‘breaking news’ for the days to come and they would not have to report about people dying of heat in Orissa or children dying of malnourishment in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.