Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is expected to leave the Perumbayil Mana Ayurvedic resort near Guruvayur in Kerala’s Thrissur district on Friday evening after his 14-day treatment for a shoulder trouble.
But even on late Thursday evening, it was not clear to the dozens of newsmen waiting outside the facility since Tuesday whether he would choose to talk to them even briefly in response to the past three days’ developments which started with the Delhi Police’s act of registering a case of murder in connection with the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
“The 14-day treatment is to conclude on Friday morning. As per the schedule, he is to leave on Friday evening. But I have no idea about whether he would talk to you people then or before that. Also I don’t know what destination he would choose,” resort managing director Sajeev Kurup told newsmen on Thursday.
The gates of the resort had become a spot of buzzing activity by Tuesday noon as dozens of newsmen, television cameras, camera crew and OB vans converged there following reports that he was undergoing treatment there. But even before that, scores of police personnel had descended on the facility to give protection to the MP.
“All efforts to contact the MP failed. He would not take telephone calls. The resort people said the treatment did not need strict seclusion but he would not meet anybody. It was as though he had chosen self-imposed solitude. let us see what happens on Friday,” said a reporter from a Malayalam TV channel on the Mana’s front courtyard on Thursday.
Hours after the news about the Delhi Police registering an FIR under Section 302 of the IPC on his wife death broke, Tharoor had made a Facebook post expressing his shock at the development and he had issued a similar statement through a resort employee.
Since then, there was no word from him. Resort MD Sajeev Kurup said that he had been informed about the crowd of journalists waiting outside. But his answer was that he had informed them about all he had to and there was nothing more to convey to them, at least for the time being, Kurup said.
By Thursday evening there were rumours that Tharoor might talk to newsmen briefly on Friday before leaving the Ayurvedic facility. It was also said that he might talk to the Press only at Thiruvananthapuram or Kochi later. Another rumour was that his Press secretary might address the newsmen. However, there was no confirmation for either of these reports.
According to Kurup, the MP was writing a book. He said he did not know what the subject of the book was but it seemed it was pretty serious. He quoted Tharoor as saying that the writing was in its final stages, adding that he had reached the facility on December 25 with the aim of undergoing treatment and completing the book simultaneously.