DUBAI // A socialite at the centre of a political storm over her role in the ownership of an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team and her relationship with an Indian minister spoke out to defend herself yesterday.
Sunanda Pushkar, a Dubai resident, lashed out at critics for presenting her as a "proxy" for her close friend, Shashi Tharoor, the minister of state for external affairs.
"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," said Ms Pushkar in a statement given to IANS, a news service in India.
She is in New Delhi and said her statement was to set the record straight about her role in the public controversy.
Mr Tharoor is facing immense political pressure to resign after it emerged that Ms Pushkar had been given a free stake worth millions of dollars in a new IPL team from Kochi.
The minister had provided help and guidance when Rendezvous Sports World, a group comprising businessmen from India and the UAE, bought the IPL Kochi team for a reported US$333million (Dh1.2bn).
The main opposition party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has accused the minister of corruption by alleging that the free stake is worth US$15 million and was given to his friend in return for her efforts. Ms Pushkar defended her free stake in the team by saying that she was offered this in lieu of her salary for professional services. "I have built up a respectable and successful career while coping with widowhood and raising a child as a single mother," she said.
"Yet I have been reduced to a caricature in the media, portrayed with inaccuracies and falsehoods. In view of my extensive international experience as a business executive, marketing manager and entrepreneur, I was invited to assist Rendezvous, particularly in the areas of fundraising, networking, elsewhere; event management; and brand building."
More details about Ms Pushkar's life in Dubai emerged yesterday after her former employer, Tecom, confirmed that she had worked for them as a sales manager until last month.
Indian media reports have suggested that she and Mr Tharoor plan to get married soon - a notion hinted at by Ms Pushkar herself yesterday.
pmenon@thenational.ae
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
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Normal People
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber
RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
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ASTON VILLA 2015-16
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FULHAM 2018-19
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LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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