Tharoor Favored for Secretary General Post

Author Shashi Tharoor has become the frontrunner for the post of UN Secretary General, gaining immense support after asserting that if he gets the job he will stop writing.

“Once I am in that post, I won’t have time to be much of a writer and a columnist,” Tharoor said in an interview with CNN-IBN. “I don’t think I will have the luxury to write."

Soon after the interview, a poll showed that Tharoor had increased his support tenfold. A NewYork Times headline blared: “Tharoor promises not to write anymore, critics rejoice.” The Washington Post screamed: “Tharoor’s pledge sweeps away competition.”

Tharoor, the UN Undersecretary-General for Communications and Public Information, is the author of nine books, including three novels. He also writes a fortnightly column for The Hindu, a newspaper that has supported his candidacy from the start.

Tharoor was nominated by India on June 15, but few people took his candidacy seriously, believing that India’s prominence on the world stage and his close relationship with current secretary general Kofi Annan would ruin his chances. Then, in what’s now being considered a brilliant strategy, Tharoor reportedly began writing another book.

“It was like a threat,” New York Times literary critic Michiko Kakutani said. “If you don’t make me secretary general, I’ll write another book.”

His support increased significantly, but it was only when he confirmed that he wouldn’t write anymore that he became an overwhelming favorite.

“It was a masterful strategy,” said another critic Christopher Hitchens. “One can’t help but wonder if Tharoor began writing books with an eye toward the secretary general post.”

But Kakutani believes that Tharoor devised his strategy more recently, after witnessing the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor. “Schwarzenegger got many votes from movie buffs,” she said. “They knew that if they elected him governor, he would have to stop acting.”