Shashi Tharoor is an
Indian diplomat and writer who has been known mostly for his having worked as
an Indian diplomat at the United Nations. In 2006, he was the official
candidate of India for the office of United Nations Secretary-General, and came
second out of seven official candidates in the race. Tharoor served as the UN
Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information between June
2002 and February 2007, during the term of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is
an author, journalist, and fellow of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Tharoor
is an Indian national, from the state of Kerala. Tharoor studied at Montfort
School in Yercaud and Campion School in Mumbai, attended High School at St.
Xavier�s Collegiate School in Kolkata and graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St. Stephen�s College, Delhi where he stood first in the University,
graduating with a record score in History (Honours). While at St. Stephen�s Tharoor was actively involved in the Debating Society, where
he won every single debating prize available, the Quiz Club, which he founded,
and the Students� Union, of which he was the elected President.
He then completed a Ph.D. at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
University, Massachusetts, where he also earned two Master�s degrees. His Ph.D was awarded when he was 22, a Fletcher
record. In 1978, Tharoor began working for the United Nations, serving with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose Singapore office he headed during the �boat people� crisis. He began as a senior official at the
United Nations headquarters in New York in 1989, where, until late 1996, he was
responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. From January
1997 to July 1998, he was executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan. He was appointed director of communications and special projects in the
office of the Secretary-General, and in January 2001, he was appointed by the
Secretary-General as interim head of the Department of Public Information. On 1
June 2002, he was confirmed as the Under Secretary General for Communications
and Public Information. In this capacity, he was responsible for the
communication strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the UN. In
2003, the Secretary-General appointed him to the additional responsibility of
United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. Tharoor's was an exceptional UN
career, rising as he did from the P-2 level to the highest possible rank of
Under-Secretary-General in a mere 23 years. He was privileged to play a key
role in some of the major events of his time, from the Vietnamese boat people
crisis to the Yugoslav Civil Wars, to serve in both the humanitarian and
peace-keeping arenas as well as in the Secretary-General's office. He
established a reputation at the Department of Public Information as a reformer
and as the UN's most articulate voice for the principles of the United Nations
Charter and the work of multilateralism in an increasingly unipolar world. He
took a number of initiatives, ranging from organizing and conducting the
first-ever UN seminar on anti-Semitism and against Islamophobia to launching an
annual list of "Ten Under-Reported Stories the World Ought to Know
About". Tharoor resigned from the post of Under Secretary General on
February 9, 2007 and left the UN effective 1 April 2007. On June 15, 2006, the
Government of India announced its backing for Tharoor�s candidacy as Kofi Annan�s successor for the
post of UN Secretary General. Tharoor came second ( in each of the four straw
polls conducted by the UN Security Council on 24 July,14 September ,28 Septembe
and 2 October, though he handily won an online poll conducted by the BBC News
website. In the fourth poll, Ban emerged as the only candidate with the support
of all five permanent members, each of whom has the power to veto candidates.
Tharoor remained the only other candidate of seven contenders to enjoy a
majority in the Security Council, though with one Permanent Member (later
revealed to be the US) opposed, and one (China) abstaining. After the vote,
Tharoor withdrew his candidacy, telling reporters he was �confident that Ban will win.� In February 2007, it
was reported in the Indian press that Tharoor might be inducted into council of
ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Minister of State for External
Affairs. In the same month, it was reported in an American gossip blog that
Tharoor was a finalist for the position of dean of the USC Annenberg School for
Communication in Los Angeles, though he withdrew his name from consideration at
the final stage. Dr. Tharoor�in addition to a variety of other activities
in his private life�is chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures,
which has established the Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC) in
Trivandrum, Kerala, India. On 19 March,2009 Tharoor was declared as the Indian
National Congress candidate of the Trivandrum constituency in Kerala for the
General Elections in 2009.Tharoor will be contesting against P Ramachandran
Nair of CPI.
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