(Courtesy: Khaleej Times)
Spa a thought for Sunanda
CITY TIMES GOT the inside track on the fact that the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conceded space to the pressure gangs and indicated that Shashi Tharoor could be up for the sack if ‘impropriety’ is proven.
He was referring to the involvement of his Dubai-based fiancee Sunanda Pushkar being a contributor to the Rendezvous cartel that has bankrolled the Kochi team for next year’s IPL.
Talk about cups of woe. Tharoor’s spilleth over and then some. For a guy who just recently was on tiptoes to touch the stars as the Secretary General of the United Nations he now faces a Black Monday fallout not just from the PM’s office with the ‘uh oh okay’ signal to investigate him but has further received a death threat from the D company (mythical or real, who knows but enough to ruin the coffee) that he should pull out of the IPL deal…or else!
Meanwhile, spa owner and current wife-to-be Sunanda Pushkar who lives in Dubai has come out of her corner fighting and her one-two undercuts have opened up some new flanks.
Not only has she denied being a Tharoor proxy for the $16 million that is under her name in the Rendezvous bid but sees the media conclusion that she was the frontwoman as an insult. Sunanda, who seems to be a very popular lady in Dubai and extremely well liked by her friends has displayed a certain feisty rage. Although she is supposed to own a spa in Dubai no one seems to know where it is or what it is called. Dubai’s page 3 people feigned ignorance and be sure they would know so is the spa a cover for a cover for a cover? Good question.
Sunanda calls herself an entrepreneur, a global businesswoman and a marketing executive who is doing very well so she doesn’t need to play games.
Let’s quickly run through what is going on. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Washington sets the tone, diverted from deflecting a nuclear world to deflecting a cabinet scandal: “I have heard about these things (allegations against Tharoor). I do not have all the facts before me. When I go back (on Saturday), I will get all the facts, and in the light of those, if any action is necessary, I think that would be the proper way to proceed,” he said. So much for that.
Sunanda from Delhi: “The media has been writing 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. 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.”
The message is clear: get thee off my back and the devil take the hind leg.
Lalit Modi: Tharoor called me and asked me not to reveal the ownership details. People were asking so I released the names.Tharoor: I did not call Modi, he is a liar and the names were supposed to be confidential.
The codicil: The document states that the contents of the franchise and the names of its owners will remain confidential. Lalit Modi tweeted them. Why? Will this invite criminal action for deliberate acts of malice.
Sunanda again: “I have lived a life of integrity and committed no 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.”
Kashmir village Bomai is now a point of reference for all the journalists who are in a feeding frenzy.
Residents of her native village, Bomai in Sopore district in Kashmir found her kind hearted, tomboyish, always flouting the norm but endearing. However, the family left behind a reputation for generosity to the poor.
She changed her name just to be different. Poshkar became Pushkar and Sunanda Dass became Sunanda Pushkar. Her father Poshkar Nath Dass retired as a lieutenant colonel in the army; her brothers are service officers. She has been married to a Kashmiri but that did not fly. She then married a Kerala businessman but he passed away after meeting with a road accident.
City Times did a bit of sleuthing and came up with one nugget that may or may not pan out since everyone is silent on the subject. The spa that might be owned by Sunanda in part or full is known as Spa Dunya. Go figure.
