By Sneha Garodia
Why has Shashi Tharoor suddenly become the topic of everyone’s dinner table conversation? Isn’t it astounding that the so called ‘Minister Twitter’ has been victimised by the cross border tweet controversy between his wife, Sunanda Pushkar and a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar. The Twitter War began with a series of intimate messages being sent out from Tharoor’s account to Tarar’s. So, it no more remained a personal issue as millions of his twitter followers also got acquainted with the same. And another love-hate triangle for the public is here to entertain them at the cost of someone’s scintillating private life.
The series of events started when Mehr was alleged for having a relationship with our dashing HRD minister while his wife was away for some medical treatment. Mehr tweeted “I love you, Shashi Tharoor.
And I go while in love with you, irrevocably, irreversibly, hamesha(always). Bleeding, but always yours Mehr.” Following this, Sunanda had threatened to sue Tharoor for indulging in an extra marital affair. She also accused Mehr of being a vulture as she tried to break her resplendent marriage and called her an ISI agent which put Mehr and her family in danger. But Tharoor tried to nip the bud which was causing a catfight between the two ladies by saying that his and Sunanda’s accounts were hacked. However, his wife denied his claims and admitted that she purposely sent out such texts from his account to expose Mehr Tarar. Mehr was utterly shocked and replied with some of the following tweets. “I have nothing to say to a woman clearly out of her mind. To be called an ISI agent, a stalker, I have nothing to add. Just shows who she is”. “For a woman to trash another woman linking her w/her husband is the lowest form of sickness ever. It’s nauseous. No respect for her marriage”. This is just the ignition of a spark and not the climax.
The stimulus could be felt across border when Mehr said that this was a part of Pushkar’s fickle-minded imagination. Mehr definitely confessed that she knew Tharoor and had met him twice, subsequent to which she praised his intense voice in a Pakistani daily. They were also in touch because she was planning to write a book on Indian elections and later on Kerala in which she needed Tharoor’s suggestions and reviews. There was nothing more to it according to her version of story. This unpleasant and exaggerated episode hurt Tarar but she said she won’t be pursuing any legal action against Pushkar as it will be difficult to do so from Lahore.
The level of confusion escalated when the Tharoor couple jointly issued a statement saying “They are distressed by an ‘unseemly controversy’ over some ‘unauthorized tweets’ posted from their Twitter accounts and that both are ‘happily married and intend to remain that way’.” This was in contradiction to Sunanda’s divorce threat to Tharoor publicly. But controversies are endless. All we can wish the couple is a resplendent marital life. After all it is said ‘all is well that ends well’.
However, Tharoors’ were not destined to have a beautiful ending to their love story. The news channels on 17 January, 2014 flashed the melancholic headline of Sunanda Tharoor’s sudden death at 08:30 p.m. in Hotel Leela. Grief had poured over the entire nation and condolences were being sent out. Even Mehr Tarar said that she was absolutely shocked on Mrs. Tharoor’s sudden death. Infact, just the same morning Sunanda had promised a few journalists an interview regarding the whole fight. But she didn’t turn up and left them waiting forever. With this the Twitter War case has taken an extremely unforeseen twist. Now investigations are taking place to ascertain whether Sunanda Tharoor committed suicide, was murdered or died a natural death.
Even in their most bizarre nightmare, nobody could imagine that a girl from another nation could deeply influence the blissful lives of a couple in such a profound manner. All thanks to the social networking and micro-blogging sites for shrinking the distances to such a mean extent!
