Is the celebrity-author gunning for the commerce and industry minister's job?
Shashi Tharoor, an established author and self-styled celebrity -- and unsuccessful candidate for UN secretary general -- is now taking on India's minister of commerce and industry, Kamal Nath. Tharoor committed himself to responding to questions for Nath's forthcoming book, "India's Century: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Energy in the World's Biggest Democracy," to be published by McGraw-Hill in August. When those questions were e-mailed to him, he suddenly decided he was too busy to respond. He asked Minister Nath to look up old Tharoor columns in Indian newspapers and extract from them!
Now it turns out that Tharoor is writing a competing book, "The Elephant, The Tiger, and the Cell Phone: India, the Emerging 21st Century Power."
Is Tharoor gunning for Nath's job as well? Don't be surprised. After all, he persuaded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to nominate him as India's first-ever candidate for secretary general.