Sunanda

New Delhi, April 14: Sunanda Pushkar today said she was a business professional by her own right — an assertion that Shashi Tharoor articulated further in his own inimitable style: “Our media cannot accept an attractive woman as a serious business professional.”

In a statement given to news agency IANS, Sunanda said references to her as a “proxy” to Tharoor were “insulting”.

“They (the media) are just focusing obsessively on my personal life as if a woman cannot be capable of professional or financial success. My own business interests and assets are substantial, and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend,” she said.

Sunanda said she had worked hard to get where she was while coping with widowhood. “I have built up a respectable and successful career while coping with widowhood and raising a child as a single mother. Yet I have been reduced to a caricature in the media, portrayed with inaccuracies and falsehoods.”

Sunanda said she had been approached by Rendezvous, which successfully bid for the IPL Kochi franchise, a year ago, to be primarily a “consultant”.

“They invited me to associate myself with them as a consultant in their various sporting activities and particularly in their potential bid to acquire the franchise of an IPL team.”

She added that she has lived a life of integrity and hadn’t been ever involved in any crime. “Yet, I am treated in a humiliating manner. My parents, friends and family members have been hounded by intrusive journalists. My personal life is nobody else’s business and if I have a marriage to announce, I will do it myself, rather than leave it to strangers. I would request the media to respect my privacy,” she said.

In an interview to NDTV tonight, Tharoor echoed Sunanda. “She is one of several people in the consortium. She is a senior business professional who has worked in brand management. I’m not part of this business arrangement but this is sweat equity... she has to earn it. Right now, nobody is making any money... there may be profits later.”

“My involvement has nothing whatsoever to do with her,” the junior foreign minister said, adding that he was “recently close to Pushkar...only recently...but close”.

Tharoor spoke of the toll the controversy was taking on him. “I’m still reeling.… I’ve spent a lifetime in international public life without the slightest taint on my integrity.… It’s the one thing I never thought anybody would have any excuse to say against me,” he said.

KKR sounded out

In her statement, Sunanda said she had “previously been approached by Karim Morani of Kolkata Knight Riders to join them in a similar capacity but had regretted that the timing was not convenient”.

However, in an interview with PTI later Sunanda modified the statement, suggesting it was she who took the initiative. “I wanted to associate with IPL and I had tried with Kolkata Knight Riders earlier,” she said.

Sunanda said she had approached KKR last year with some ideas about branding and marketing and had discussed a possible tie-up with Morani before the event was shifted to South Africa. “Thereafter there is no connect with them. We had not talked about any equity participation as Karim himself doesn’t own any,” she said.        

Karim told PTI: “She approached us in Dubai with some good ideas. We had asked her to come to India for further discussions but it could not be taken any further as the event was shifted to South Africa.”