UNITED NATIONS, April 21 -- With former UN official Shashi Tharoor forced to resign as a minister in India, the Indian media has been seeking comment from all and sundry in UN headquarters. Shashi, charged with steering payoffs to a close associate in connection with a cricket team, has proclaimed that his time at the UN was without blemish. Is that true?
In a word, no. Shashi bent the rules to get people jobs including people, shall we say, very close to him. As Inner City Press first reported, one of the people he got a job for is related to an Indian auditor who did the first, whitewashing investigation / cover up of what would become known as the Oil for Food scandal.
From that, the Indian media wanted to know about Shashi's role in Oil for Food. Shashi's former colleague in the UN Department of Public Information, Ahmad Fawzi, took an Indian television reporter to task for even asking the question. He said he'd never heard of the favoritism hiring allegations on the UN's 10th floor. Fawzi is retired now, but he trumpeted the UN's line.
Allegedly trumpeting, but probably falsely, was an online contributor call him - or her - self Kofi Annan. IANS in India reported at face value a posting by "Kofi Annan" defending Shashi and other Indian politicians. Inner City Press will venture this is a faux Kofi, a Faufi, to coin a word.
Meanwhile Indian media in New York tried to track down the real Kofi, seen at UN Headquarters just the other day along with top Peacekeeping Alain Leroy.
When Shashi lost out to Ban Ki-moon in his quest to become Secretary General, he went to work for a Dubai based firm that was seeking investments in India. Shashi made it sound like a social venture, even a nonprofit, which it decidedly was not.
But this is not a crime. Nor is referring to coach class on an airline as "cattle class," even if you fly in the government's money and post the statement on Twitter. Arrogant, perhaps. But not a crime. As to Cricket-Gate, we'll see. Watch this site.
