Happily married, Tharoor says after wife’s Twitter spat with Pak journo

One of India's foremost Twitter celebrities and minister of state for human resource development, Shashi Tharoor, ironically remained the subject of mockery on the social media site all through Thursday, with his wife, Sunanda, openly trading insults with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged "affair" between the two.

The minister took to Twitter to try and stem a scandal plaguing him and his wife after a series of messages exposed an alleged affair he was having with Tarar appeared on Wednesday.

Tharoor posted the link of the joint statement on Twitter.

"We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts," said Tharoor in a joint statement posted on Facebook.

"Various distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda have appeared in the press. It appears that some personal and private comments responding to these unauthorised tweets -- comments that were not intended for publication -- have been misrepresented and led to some erroneous conclusions."

"We wish to stress that we are happily married and intend to remain that way. Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy."

Talking to Hindustan Times from Lahore, Tarar, a columnist with Pakistan's Daily Times, said, "My request to Mrs Tharoor is not to call me an ISI agent. Please tell her that my son is very upset. She can call me whatever she wants, but calling me an ISI agent is just crazy. I hope Mr Tharoor has a successful marriage. I hope he wins elections."

Her tweet, right after, read, "My name is Mehr, and I am not an ISI agent. Or RAW. Or CIA. Or Mossad. Or even the dead KGB."

Incidentally, Tarar's 13-year-old son, Musa Nishat, has Shashi Tharoor among his 275 followers on Twitter.

Tarar, who is in her mid-40s and a former op-ed page editor, also found support from fellow women journalists in Pakistan.

A former colleague of hers from Daily Times told HT on condition of anonymity, "By revealing details of the alleged affair in public, Sunanda Tharoor has made life very difficult for Mehr who is a single parent to a teenaged son. Her husband is a rich man who lives in Bahrain. These allegations of being an ISI agent or having an affair with a well known Indian politician will get people talking about her, and get her into trouble with the agencies. No one knows for sure if it was an affair, and even if it was, tumhara miya bhi toh involved hoga? Apne husband ko toh bahut achha bana rahi hain Sunanda."

Flip-flops
As the day unfolded on Thursday, Sunanda, who was recently in another controversy for having shouted at a Khaleej Times journalist in Dubai, did a U-turn by distancing herself from the earlier interviews.

Sunanda told NDTV that her outpouring on Twitter was meant to keep her husband from straying after a day of bizarre tweets and clarifications.

Pushkar said that she indeed had sent out a few tweets to the Pakistani journalist, Meher Tarar, who she claimed "wants to have a life-long relationship with Shashi not knowing that he is a happily married man."

"The tweets that I sent today were that a woman should stay away from a woman's husband, it's not morally right," said Pushkar.

"I was just trying to tell my husband that stay away from her because it's election year. I was also a bit annoyed by a girl lying about me, trying to get close to my husband."

"He (Shashi) is a minister, I am a common person, "aam aadmi". I get upset. I am a human being," she said.

Pushkar also said that if Tarar wants to sue her, she is welcome to do that.

She added that Tharoor will issue a statement adding that "he is a busy man and doesn't have time for this."

"Shashi is a happily married man with no intention of leaving his wife and his wife has no intention of leaving him," she said.

"Mine and Shashi's account were hacked. But I did send out, I think, two-three messages on her (Mehr Tarar's) account. Shashi is kind of a gentleman... doesn't know how to say no. As you know, in our society the words "I love you" come very easily. Shashi is fond of people writing flattering articles about him. She knows how to push buttons," she told NDTV.

"For her information, Shashi and I are very happy together. Sad for her to know i guess (sic)," she further tweeted.

This prompted a post from Tarar that read, "The wife trashed the husband. Now doing WTH damage control. Isse kehte hain apne hee giraate hain nashemaan pe biljlian."

source