Young Kingdom

When Shashi Tharoor rose to lay the papers listed against his name in the Rajya Sabha during an initial Parliamentary sitting of UPA’s second stint in power, his involved and accented English rendition of an uninspiring House ritual was met with stifled sniggers. Among those who were suppressing a smile were also some in Congress. Mr Tharoor, it would appear, will take a long time to wipe off those smiles.

From the outset, the junior minister of state has found it hard to get his steps right in the complex world of Indian politics. The United Nations diplomat, with “a lifetime in international public life” as he described it himself in a TV interview, might have only himself to blame when he examines why the same sweet phrase may not be able to describe his stint in Indian public life.

His outsider status and his attempts to play it up rather than assimilate into picture have had a role in the way his party and the political class as a whole has reacted to him. With Mr Tharoor came two entities who became an inextricable part of the Tharoor persona — first, the ubiquitous social networking tool, Twitter, and the other, his officer on special duty (OSD) Jacob Joseph, who also came fitted with a Twitter extension.

Before the Kochi IPL controversy blew in his face, Mr Tharoor was regularly courting trouble with his tweets on issues such as Congress’ austerity drive and his comments on India’s change of visa rules. Even the more technologically evolved Indian netas just don’t get the medium. So, it is not really surprising that it all really began with Mr Tharoor’s tweet on travelling “cattle class” in deference to “our holy cows” . The fat was in the fire and from across political divide came the first call for his resignation. Mr Tharoor’s OSD made matters worse by enlisting support for the beleaguered minister on the virtual world. He even posted a photograph of a tired Mr
Tharoor snoozing during a “cattle class” or economy class Kerala trip.

Mr Jacob’s large presence in all issues connected with Mr Tharoor has come to haunt the minister in the current IPL row. If he was the one to have introduced an absurd angle to Kochi tangle by alleging that Mr Tharoor was being threatened by the Dawood Ibrahim gang, then evidence about his possible involvement in the bidding process for the Kochi IPL made Mr Tharoor’s position more precarious. Mr Tharoor might have been able to invoke sexism to take on critics who charged that his close friend, Sunanda Pushkar’s , stake in the Kochi team, was pay-off for his help. However, with Mr Jacob, charges of the OSD doubling up as a deal-maker might have dealt a death blow to Mr Tharoor’s attempts to climb out unscathed from the Kochi mess.

Off the twitter net, there were a number of other utterances that did not go unheeded in the media. Thus if Congress leaders were peeved at Mr Tharoor’s reading of the late Jawaharlal Nehru’s and Mahatma Gandhi’s impact on Indian foreign policy, then he had definitely broken a lot of unwritten rules in suggesting an interlocutory role for Saudi Arabia in Indo-Pak talks.

Mr Shashi Tharoor denied the latter statement and blamed the media for misrepresenting him on Nehru and Gandhi conducting foreign policy like a “moralistic running commentary” on other’s behaviour. However, the impression gained ground that Mr Shashi Tharoor was “going too far” as Congress leaders increasingly came to characterise his moves. What they were essentially saying was that he was being too clever for his own good. They seem to have been vindicated by the ongoing controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL franchise.

Perhaps, Mr Tharoor attempted to break into the slippery world of cricket politics that cannot be mastered without knowing the rules of the game first. His missteps in politics have been drowned out by the unholy mix of cricket, money and corruption thrown up by IPL. This is the big daddy of political deal-making and Mr Tharoor’s “lifetime in international public life” might not have prepared him for its intricacies.

Popularly known as the ”Twitter minister” for his high level of involvement on the microblogging site, Shashi Tharoor who stepped down as minister for external affairs late Sunday, has found support among many netizens logged on to the service.

”Indian Politics will not improve. Only people with even don’t know how to write ’ABCDEF’ can sustain there (Eg: Azhagiri). Not for Tharoor”, tweeted a user named ’diasbaby’.

”How can Manmohan Singh be a ’man of integrity’ by sacking Tharoor and keeping Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, D Raja..” asked the editor of Pragati, Nitin Pai, who tweets under the handle ’Acorn’.
Similar outpourings of support for the embattled minister were forthcoming, with people referring to his resignation as a ”black day for democracy” and angrily pointing out that he was a ”victim” and a ”soft target”.

On a similar vein there was a lot of anger against IPL chief Lalit Modi (twitter handle LalitKModi), who has been the other player in the whole controversy that culminiated in Tharoor’s resignation.

”Episode Tharoor over... Now time for Modi to get axed... ” said a user named ’swatterhamon, while ’thekarachikid’ likened Modi to the bullying ”whiney dude from 3 idiots”. Yet another tweet from ”madversity” called him ”the more expereinced slimeball”. Yet another user named ’leoindian’ said ”I support Sasi Tharoor, Lalit modi moordabad, i hate that man, personification of deceitful machinations, co-ordinator of black mony lenderz”

In the meantime a news report from CNN IBN titled ”Knives out for Modi” which hinted that the BCCI is planning to crack down on Modi, is doing the rounds, with little comments like ”Made my Monday morning” and ”modi soon to be in trouble? :)”

Tharoor who built a strong support base on Twitter during his 2009 election campaign has regularly used it as a means of ’reaching out’ to his supporters. His account currently has 724,396 followers. However his frequent updates have also got Tharoor into trouble, starting from the time he used the adjective ”cattle class” to describe aircraft economy class. In this particular controversy however, he largely kept his views off Twitter until the very end when he tweeted ”I’ve had enough” and put up a link to a written statement on the issue.

Modi on the other hand, notably used the service to first reveal Tharoor’s alleged involvement in the Kochi IPL team and open the proverbial can of worms. He was since warned about his Twitter usage and now restricts himself to tweeting about match results and the tournament. His last major updates have been about the Chennai Super Kings victory and the bomb blasts in Bangalore that have caused the venue of the semi finals to be shifted to Mumbai. He has 73,797 followers at present.

Tharoor’s last update on his own Twitter account was made three days ago, and have largely revolved around attempts to clear his name. His last tweet, made three days ago reads ”Thanks for all the support & good wishes.U folks are the new India.We will ”be the change” we wish to see in our country. But not w’out pain!”

Sweat equity is a term used to describe the contribution made to a project by people who contribute their time and effort. It can be contrasted with financial equity which is the money contributed towards the project. It is used to refer to a form of compensation by businesses to their owners or employees. The term is sometimes used in partnership agreements where one or more of the partners contributes no financial capital. In the case of a business startup, employees might, upon incorporation, receive stock or stock options in return for working for below-market salaries (or in some cases no salary at all).

The term is sometimes used to describe the efforts put into a start-up company by the founders in exchange for ownership shares of the company. This concept, also called "stock for services" and sometimes "equity compensation" or "sweat equity" can also be seen when start-up companies use their shares of stock to entice service providers to provide necessary corporate services in exchange for a discount or for deferring service fees until a later date, see e.g. "Idea Makers and Idea Brokers in High Technology Entrepreneurship" by Todd L. Juneau et al., Greenwood Press, 2003, which describes equity for service programs involving patent lawyers and securities lawyers who specialize in start-up companies as clients.

The term can also be used to describe the value added to real estate by owners who make improvements by their own toil. The more labor applied to the home, and the greater the resultant increase in value, the more sweat equity that has been used. Some home improvement projects have the potential to create more value than do other projects. Wallpaper, floor coverings and paint can dress up an old residence and make it more appealing to buyers. Improvements to bathrooms and kitchens are the most valuable sources of additional value.

In a successful model used by Habitat for Humanity, families who would otherwise be unable to purchase their own home (because their income level does not allow them to save for a down payment or qualify for an interest-bearing mortgage offered by a financial institution) contribute up to 500 hours of sweat equity to the construction of their own home, the homes of other Habitat for Humanity partner families or by volunteering to assist the organization in other ways. Once moved into their new home, the family makes monthly, interest-free mortgage payments into a revolving "Fund for Humanity" which provides capital to build homes for other partner families.

Sunanda Pushkar controversy

Rendezvous Sports World, part of the consortium that owns Kochi franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL), may not be technically having the “sweat equity” that they claim to have.

Rendezvous has a 26 per cent stake in the unincorporated joint venture (UJV) that owns Kochi Franchise. Out of this, 25 per cent they claim to have received as “sweat equity” for the management service they would render in running the franchise.

According to the Companies Act, sweat equity is allotted to a person for his contribution of tangible or non-tangible asset to a company. For instance, if a person works for creating patents for a company, then the company can issue equity to him, instead of paying cash. It could be issued for many other things such as providing technical know how, brand or copyright. It is basically issuing share instead of cash for a service provided.

What is unique about Rendezvous is that their “sweat equity” is “undilutable in perpetuity” and it has a lock-in period of just two years.

According to consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Companies Act norms do not make sweat equity “undilutable in perpetuity”. It means when new equity is issued by a company to a third party, then the promoters’ as well as the sweat equity holder’s stake is diluted accordingly. Besides, the lock-in period in the Companies Act is three years.

More than that the Companies Act allows an unlisted company to issue up to 15 per cent, or worth up to Rs 5 crore, in a year under sweat equity allotment. “If the allotment is more than 15 per cent in a year, then it will not be treated as sweat equity, unless the central government approval is taken,” said Joy Jain, executive director at PWC.

Officials at Ministry of Corporate Affairs said they had not received any request for authorising 25 per cent sweat equity allotment.

“There is no clarity in this case as to the terms and conditions that led to the grant of sweat equity. The corporate affairs ministry should clarify, if the current rules under the Companies Law (that binds issue of sweat equity by unlisted companies) has been flouted in this case,” said Manoj Kumar, senior partner, Hammurabi & Solomon, a Delhi-based legal consultancy firm.

There are five other partners in the UJV that owns Kochi franchisee. Out of this, Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Film Waves Combines own 27 per cent, 26 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. While Anand Shyam Estates owns 8 per cent, Vivek Venugopal has 1 per cent. These partners are the financial investors, while Rendezvous will take care of the management.

Meanwhile, Sunanda Pushkar, the woman at the centre of an ownership controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL franchise, is considering filing for damages and has hired a Dubai-based lawyer for the purpose.

Shashi Tharoor Sunanda Pushkar Exclusive Picture

Sunanda Pushkar's face recently launched a thousand IPL controversies. However, if you've had enough of it, you could try an older variation.


The one you've been spotting these days is only a new and improved version. City sources say that the woman, who is in the eye of the Modi-Tharoor storm, had a nose job done by a leading Mumbai-based cosmetic surgeon ten years ago.



When contacted, Dr Ashok Gupta, who runs a clinic at Laud Mansion, admitted, after some initial hesitation, that he had performed surgeries for Pushkar.

“Many patients come to me for various things. Sunanda Pushkar was one of them. I conducted a rhinoplasty for her in 2000. She had also sought some other changes,” said Dr Gupta, who received the Padma Shri in 2009 for his contribution to the field of plastic surgery.

Pushkar wanted the size of her nose reduced as well the bridge straightened. Sources said that Pushkar also had two other fat reduction surgeries before the nose job. She was in hospital for three days and was registered under the name ‘Su’. Sources said that she is fondly called by the name her friends at the time. Pushkar came to Dr Gupta through a common friend who also knew her late second husband, sources said.

In 2000, such a surgery could have cost anywhere between Rs 3 to 4 lakh. However, sources said, she was not charged for the operation because she had come with a recommendation. Pushkar paid only the hospital charges, the sources said.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi recently alleged that the Dubai-based entrepreneur was gifted a stake of Rs 70 crore in the Kochi franchise. The surgery took place in Mumbai in July 2000, by which time Pushkar was already a widow.

A close friend of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar has been seen with him at various social events in the recent past.

She has, in fact, been introduced several times as Tharoor's "friend from Canada".

Tharoor has acknowledged that he knows her very well. (Read: I am not a proxy for Tharoor: Sunanda Pushkar)

There is growing speculation that she's engaged to the junior Foreign Minister but there has been no official confirmation of that yet.

Sunanda, who is in her 40s, runs a spa in Dubai. She also holds an executive's post with an infrastructure company owned by the Emirate government. She has also worked with advertising firms, a travel agency in Dubai as well as with an IT firm in Toronto.

She belongs to Sopore in the Kashmir Valley and her father is a retired Lt Colonel.

Sunanda Pushkar is at the centre of the Kochi IPL franchise storm. There are allegations that Tharoor used her as a front to collect Rs 70 crores for helping the Kochi owners get their IPL team. Rendezvous Sports World leads the consortium that bought the Kochi team.

The group has offered a staunch defense of its decision to give away equity worth Rs 70 crores to Pushkar. It says that she is a Sales and Marketing Expert who knows the Kerala and Middle East market well and deserves to be rewarded for the expertise she offers to the consortium.