[Updated] Twitter Controversy: Sunanda Pushkar Found dead in Delhi Hotel

Jan 17, 2014

Update: Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union minister Shashi Tharoor, found dead in Delhi hotel

Sunanda Pushkar has reportedly been found dead in Hotel Leela, New Delhi. Her body was found in room number 345 of the hotel. The incident came to the forefront at around 8pm, after the hotel authorities informed the police.

Pushkar had checked into the five star hotel on Thursday, police said. Sources said she was last seen at 3.30pm on Friday in the hotel lobby.

The housekeeping staff had apparently knocked on Sunanda’s door at 7pm but received no response. The hotel staff then allegedly opened the room with another swipe card and found her dead on her bed, sources in south Delhi police told TOI.

I’m absolutely shocked: Mehr Tarar

What the hell. Sunanda. Oh my God.

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 17, 2014

I just woke up and read this. I’m absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don’t know what to say. Rest in peace,Sunanda

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 17, 2014

Article: Twitter Controversy Shashi Tharoor’s Wife Accuses Pakistani Journalist of Stalking her Husband

For a change, and possibly for wrong reasons, the Indian National Congress party is back on social media conversations. No prize for guessing who, from the Congress, is in the news!

Over the last three day, social media circles, particularly Twitter, has become the audience to a theatrical drama involving a minister, his good-looking wife and a foreign journalist- as if it is a potential plot for an art cinema. But in reality, its quality is not of an art cinema, but rather that of a third rate drama. Shashi Tharoor, one of the earliest active politicians and perhaps the most controversial on Twitter along with his wife Sunanda Pushkar have been trending on Twitter a day after he tweeted that his account has been hacked (allegedly by a Pakistani national).

Sorry folks, my @Twitter account has been hacked & will be temporarily deactivated. Bear with me while we solve this.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 15, 2014

Shashi Tharoor is Minister of State for Human Resource Development in the Manmohan Singh government. Tharoor has been in the eye of the storm several times for his expressive comments on Twitter while he held important ministerial position in the central government, including his ‘cattle class’ remark for economy class airline travelers. In the latest row, Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar has alleged that a Pakistani journalist is after her husband.

The mainstream media along with Pushkar, through their unspecified ‘sources’, were quick in declaring that Tharoor’s account had been hacked by a Pakistani external intelligence (the ISI) officer. It later turned out that the minister’s wife was using his account without his knowledge, aiming to shoo away a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar.

Okay. What’s going on? Who’s tweeting to me? I had an ‘affair’ with Shashi Tharoor and he’s tweeting to me??? How does that work?

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 15, 2014

Tarar, Pushkar said, was ‘stalking’ her husband through social media. Tarar, as it is known now, had interviewed Tharoor on her latest visit to India. Tarar is a 45-year-old single mother from Lahore. She has also mentioned of a ‘special person’ in her tweets earlier, who, according to many is Tharoor.

Remarkably, Shashi and Mehr have been interacting on Twitter for quite sometime now.

@MehrTarar #FF Flattered! Coming from one of the best op-ed writers on the other side of the border… (Google her columns, folks!)

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 29, 2013

Funnily, while Twitter was abuzz with what was apparently termed a love triangle, Tharoor was unaware of it for several hours after the dust was settling down. He said his account was tampered with, and it really was, by his own wife.

What followed was a series of bizarre series of tweets from Tharoor’s account (accessed by Pushkar) to Tarar.

Pushkar informed a TV channel that there is no problem between her and Tharoor.

“Mehr Tarar is stalking my husband. Mehr Tarar is an ISI agent. I will ask RAW to look into this. I feel personally targeted by Pakistani journalist,”

Here’s what Mehr said to NDTV,

To reiterate her love for Tharoor, Pushkar even changed her Twitter handle to @sptvrock suggesting that she and the minister are a happy couple. In what appeared like a cinema-inspired drama, the duo later issued a joint statement reiterating their irrevocable love for each other and that they have no intention of leaving each other.

Joint statement by @ShashiTharoor & me https://t.co/w9nSNs66Nb … Nothing more to add

— SunandaPTharoor (@sptvrock) January 16, 2014

Meanwhile Tarar denied all allegations against her and tweeted,

SY9: My name is Mehr, and I am not an ISI agent. Or RAW. Or CIA. Or Mossad. Or even the dead KGB. May I go now?

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

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

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

I interviewed 2 politicians in India;Apr,Dec.Hv them on tape.Doing a show on Business+ nxt mth..And I’m a mother.Trashing me w/ ISI..grow up

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

Have just been approached by an Indian ch 2 respond. Said what I had to. They want it on camera;not doing it.DIRT doesn’t deserve a response

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

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

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

So I ‘stalk’ on bbm and phone. The last I checked it was a two-way thing, or maybe technology changed while I ‘stalked’?

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

The blonde’s aqal is weaker thn her grammar & spellings.From an ‘affair’ it has become ‘stalking’..make up yr mind, darlin’.Which one is it?

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

SY9: A wife who claims to love her husband drags his name through dirt,brings an imaginary personal thing on media,& ends up becoming a joke

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

The wife trashed the husband. Now doing WTH damage control. Isse kehte hain apne hee giraate hain nashemaan pe biljlian….

— Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) January 16, 2014

Tweeple found humour and political satire in this online turmoil too. While some termed it Bollywood romance triangle, some started suggesting that India should alter its foreign policy towards the hackers’ countries, namely Pakistan and China.

Meanwhile the bitter tweets cannot be found on Tharoor and Pushkar’s accounts anymore. Pushkar had earlier said that Tarar is ‘stalking’ her husband.

@sptvrock @rahulkanwal @MehrTarar not just that I have her bbms to various other men in 2013 she is a woman I am ashamed to call one shame

— SunandaPTharoor (@sptvrock) January 16, 2014

The confusion and controversy also raised eyebrows over what was a perceived case of hacking. Though untrue, it reminds one of the hacking of a number of government websites in the past. Several government agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation had reported that their website had been hacked in the Pakistani city of Karachi. After Osama’s death, when the CBI had published a list of India’s most wanted terrorists, most of whom we claimed are in Pakistan, CBI’s website was quickly hacked. The hacker made ‘Jhansi ki Rani Laxmibai’ the most wanted terrorist of India. The CBI, after much embarrassment, took the website down for several days.

The expressive and flamboyant duo, Tharoor-Pushkar had been advised to keep their private lives separate from their public discourses by self-appointed consultants. But that, as Tharoor has rightly said several times, defeats the whole purpose of ‘social media’ and its ‘democratic nature’. A question which is bothering many, especially Tharoor, is why are social media intellectuals suddenly interested in somebody’s private life?