Lalit Modi, Shashi Tharoor, IPL and the Loser game

My life revolves around pizza, gadgets, and the internet. And I think it’s pretty normal, considering I’m only 18. Twitter and Facebook are like my online version of the Constitution: I operate according to them, and can’t imagine my life without the leisure I derive out of them. That’s precisely why the Modi-Tharoor-Tweetgate made absolutely no sense to me, to say the least.

Yes, I forgot to mention earlier. When I’m not stuffing my mouth with pizza or checking out the iPad, I’m a cricket fan.

A BIG one.

Now I’d always known (from my mother’s self-supposed ‘extensive knowledge database of what’s right and wrong in the world’), that these social networking websites aren’t exactly the best place to lay out personal details about yourself [actually, I don't know how my information about my favourite movie can get me killed, but let's not get into that]. Seems like my mum and her database got it right for once. Only, Lalit Modi redefined personal details when he posted the disastrous WMD in the form of a Tweet on the 12th of April, that’s eventually bringing the IPL down.

At least the IPL, I mean. The WMD (tweet)’s first domino effect was visible on MOS Shashi Tharoor. This best-looking-face-in-the-government was accused of using Dubai-based businesswoman and alleged girlfriend Sunanda Pushkar as a buffer to own the Kochi franchise. According to Indian law, a person cannot hold any post, within the government or outside it, that leads to income, while simultaneously holding ministerial positions. As it turned out, the media and Opposition parties -catalysed by Lalit Modi’s public allegations (and pin bombs on Twitter)- successfully led to Tharoor’s ouster from the government. Ms. Pushkar pushed herself out of the Kochi consortium, and both she and Tharoor have a bleak public image to rebuild.

But the bigger question here is that concerning our Man of the Mess Mr. Modi. I wonder what he really gained out of Tharoor’s exclusion (I’m only 18 remember?). Did he create all the noise against Tharoor just to keep his political loyalties intact? [Lalit Modi is a staunch supporter of Narendra Modi & the BJP, while Tharoor is a Congressman -oops, was] If yes, then Modi’s definitely got to recheck his schedule -you’d expect the Chairman and Commissioner of a Rs. 10 billion (if not more) sporting league, executive director of Godfrey Phillips, and president and managing director of Rs.40 bn worth Modi enterprises would have something better to do, than to Tweet a minister out of the government. But it’s a good political war that Modi’s won, if it was one in the first place.

The controversy has rather landed Lalit in hot soup. He finds himself staring an uncertain future as the IPL honcho, considering the events that transpired following his WMD. IT raids, money laundering charges, match fixing allegations, BCCI’s wrath, his suspension as IPL Chief -this man’s in trouble, and he knows it. The shrewd, astute corporate that he is, he’s used his mind and money well over the past three years, and nothing was said and done then. Could it be then, that his role in Tharoor’s ouster offended the Congress, who might now be using its clout -through ex-BCCI president and Congress ally-NCP leader Sharad Pawar- to remove Modi from power? Or is it plain bad luck that has now, after 36 long months, finally found its prey? Anyhow, Modi has been replaced by Baroda Cricket chairman, industrialist Chirayu Amin as IPL chief, and he has a fortnight to claw his way back into the home of his baby. And knowing Lalit Modi as the man he is, that proposition is never null and void.

What started off as a Tweet, became a controversy, and has ultimately become a scam. Amidst all of it, the issue has also shown the farce that Indian bureaucratic set-ups can be -governmental or otherwise- and explains, even if in just a very subtle and crypted manner, the failures of India as a country. The most questioning mind in the Indian government, a potential carrier of foreign direct investment, and the man who raked into the country billions of rupees [not just unofficially], are all gone. The media has failed to objectively report events, though it has successfully tried both Modi and Tharoor. The government has landed into a mess gorier than before. The IPL final wasn’t hurt though; 50,000 people turned up to watch it, and 10 times that number viewed it digitally.

Cricket hasn’t suffered, but the country has.