Netizens raise a toast to Tharoor

BANGALORE, INDIA: Probably he is the most net savvy politician in India. But that itself proved to be his political nemesis too. Despite that political failure, the diplomat cum businessman cum writer still boasts of a huge support and people still like to believe that Shashi Tharoor was targeted by some vested interests in the IPL controversy.

With over 725,000 followers on Twitter, Tharoor is still the super star there and every minute at least 15 tweets appear on Twitter with the 'Tharoor' tag on it. “We are with you Tharoor, says one supporter while another believes that “Shashi Tharoor is a person with an exceptional global experience. Its a foul play against him, we don't care his private life.” Weeps another: “Shashi Tharoor resigns, and the wrong people win....Shocking!” However, there are optimistic people too. “Shashi Tharoor will bounce back. We need people like him to rule the country. Modi is corrupt,” reads one tweet.

Interestingly, @flyyoufools has a different take on the issue. “Now that Tharoor is gone, all those news agency employees hired to keep a watch on Twitter will be fired.” Not only Twitter, almost all social networking sites have gone viral with the Tharoor IPL controversy — which has all the spices needed to make a hot news — money, corruption, romance, and, above all cricket and celebrity!

The Facebook group, which was formed a couple of days ago by his supporters in Kerala, says, “He stood for us… Now it’s our turn to stand for him…” “IPL Kerala team was not to be..... At least that's what Mr. You-know-Who and team had in mind..... But they were made to bend the knees before the might of Shashi Tharoor..... And now the Black Jack is playing politics to bring down Mr. Tharoor....,” it says.

“Mr. Tharoor..... We fall to rise.... And if falling makes you rise higher, I pray that you fall more often...... You showed us what one man can do.....We'll stand by you till the end.....,” is all that the supporters have to say. And then there is this 'Support Tharoor' website created just a day back, which also pledges the support of many people.

“We support you Shashi Tharoor. Don't let them pull you down for you will take our hopes and dreams for a better and brighter India with you. You bring to India everything we had ever hoped would change, and we stand by you”. However, after the resignation of Tharoor as the Minister of State for External Affairs, the site seems to have crashed due to heavy traffic.

A group of youngsters are also circulating an online petition to seek Tharoor's return to the council of minister and gathering signatures which they plan to submit to President Pratibha Patil.

Nivedita Nair, one of Tharoor's several supporters on Facebook, said: "We need politicians like him (Tharoor). The media was never interested in his work. All they like is gossip and creating controversies. India was, is and will always be a country run by old men with old thoughts."

Anupam Agarwal, an engineer and one of the 6,000 supporters of the Shashi Tharoor fan club in Orkut, another networking site, added: "If we continue to lose the few well-read and knowledgeable leaders who choose to come back home, then God save us from the abyss of Indian politics."

Ramaswamy Iyer, another netizen, started an online petition titled 'We want Mr. Shashi Tharoor back'. He plans to submit it to the president once it gathers enough signatures.

"...India rarely gets politicians like Mr. Tharoor. We want change and we want him back...," the petition read.

Though it was a tweet that proved to be Tharoor’s undoing, interestingly he is getting more support in the microbloggiong space than his rivals. Remember, it was a tweet by IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi which set the issue on fire. There Modi made public many a 'secret' about the IPL Kochi franchise ownership, including Tharoor’s close friend Sunanda Pushkar’s stake in it.

Though this may see Shashi Tharoor's exit from politics he is not going to say bye to the cyber space, which is his real constituency. “Thanks for all the support & good wishes. U folks are the new India. We will "be the change" we wish to see in our country. But not w'out pain!,” says his latest tweet. Another user is happy that Tharoor is a free man now. “Now Mr.Tharoor can tweet anything he wants, and he still is an MP.

So aint that a good thing?” says another tweet. So what next from the 'tweeting politician? Let's wait and watch!