New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) "We want Shashi Tharoor back!" screamed a virtual campaign on the popular social networking website Facebook.

Calling the former minister of state for external affairs "the face of Indian politics that the young generation wants to see", many netizens, especially youngsters, said that India had lost one of its most capable ministers after his resignation Sunday.

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."

After an 11-month controvery embroiled tenure, Tharoor quit Sunday over an Indian Premier League (IPL) row. The controversy erupted after IPL chief Lalit Modi said on his twitter account that Tharoor had asked him to suppress information about his friend Sunanda Pushkar's stake in the IPL Kochi franchise.

Notwithstanding the allegations, the web world seems to be overflowing with support for the former minister.

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.

On Twitter, another networking site where Tharoor himself is very active and where the entire IPL controversy started with Modi's tweet, the emotion is similar.

Praveen Kumar, a resident of Delhi, tweeted: "Indians are not so dumb that they don't understand whi you are being targeted."

Another tweet from an Indian in Bahrain read: "Life is about ups and downs. You have to bounce back... because we need professionals like you to lead the country. All the best."

The feelings were opposite for Modi, whose twitter account attracted antagonistic remarks.

There was even a 'hashtag' invented in which twitter users "guessed" Lalit Modi's password.

"ShashiChoorChoor #lkmtwitterpassword," said a twitter user 'chitraraj'. Another user tweeted, "kochikochinahinhotahain #lkmtwitterpassword".

A website, www.supporttharoor.org, has also been lobbying to collect "pledges" from netizens since Sunday. By late Monday afternoon, it had collected nearly 1,700, with its message board flooded with supportive words, most of them Keralites from India and Gulf.

Jojy Alex from Kochi wrote on the site: "I was happy that there was one more minister that really is worth of being a minister." 

    
       
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