The Jaipur Dialogue controversy: I have enough evidence to expose double face of Shashi Tharoor – former IAS Sanjay Dixit The Sunil Sharma-Jaipur Dialogues controversy refuses die down. The main architect of The Jaipur Dialogues – former IAS Sanjay Dixit has jumped into the ring. He has threatened Shashi Tharoor of exposing him in the issue of IPL team Kochi Tusker for which Shashi Tharoor had to resign when he was minister of state for external affairs in Manmohan Singh government.
“Not just this, @ShashiTharoor had even sought my help in hushing up the infamous Kochi franchise case through my BCCI connections. He is lying through his teeth when he paints @JaipurDialogues as something undesirable. I have a whole lot of stuff with me to expose his double face,” Sanjay Dixit had tweeted.
The IPL Kochi Tusker row
In 2010, a close friend of Shashi Tharoor Sunanda Pushkar was given sweat equity of 4.7% in an IPL team – Kochi Tuskers Kerala. A major controversy was erupted and it was said that Pushkar was playing proxy to Shashi Tharoor, who was then minister of state for external affairs.
Later, Shashi Tharoor had to reign on moral grounds and the team Kochi Tuskers was dissolved.
Sanjay Dixit, who had once become president of Rajasthan Cricket Association after defeating IPL chief Lalit Modi, is probably referring to that incident in e tweet.
Why Sanjay Dixit targeted Shashi Tharoor?
Sunil Sharma, who was given Congress ticket from Jaipur, had to withdraw from the contest due to his affiliation with Sanjay Dixit his social media forum The Jaipur Dialogues, which propagated thoughts and agenda of Hindutva and RSS.
When the controversy regarding Sunil Sharma erupted, Shashi Tharoor publicly condemned party for giving ticket to Sunil Sharma, who had some link with right wing mouthpiece The Jaipur Dialogues. The open criticism of senior Congress leader like Shashi Tharoor put pressure on Congress of not defending Sunil Sharma's candidature, which created frustration and disappointment in Sharma (as claimed by Sunil Sharma) and he withdrew his candidature.
Sanjay Dixit, who is one of the directors with Sunil Sharma on board of The Jaipur Dialogues retaliated with this tweet.
Sanjay Dixit backed up Sunil Sharma, who accused Shashi Tharoor of having double face. Sunil Sharma said that Tharoor, who is being critical of The Jaipur Dialogues – was once keen to join the platform for a dialogue both right winger and American thinker David Frowley. Tharoor demanded a business class air ticket and five star stay to appear on the platform of The Jaipur Dialogues. Though he didn't come but it proved that Tharoor was not even averse to attending programme of The Jaipur Dialogues, which is being termed by social media activists as a communal platform.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.