Issue joint Press statement saying we are ‘happily married and intend to remain that way’
After Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s scandalous tweets to a Pakistan woman journalist invited bitter reaction from his wife Sunanda Pushkar, the couple tried to put a lid on the controversy and save their marriage.
In a joint statement they claimed they were distressed by the “unseemly controversy” over some “unauthorised tweets” posted from their Twitter accounts and that both are “happily married and intend to remain that way.”
On Thursday morning, Sunanda came on TV channels, accusing Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar of stalking her husband. She went to the extent of calling the 45-year-old journalist an ISI spy who chased celebrity men like her husband.
“It is funny in an election year people want to bring down an MP using Paki journo who has lost her job and tries with everyone, including with Omar (Abdullah),” said Sunanda in her tweets in the morning.
later the husband and wife came out with a joint Press release, putting the blame on unknown hackers. “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 rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy,” said the joint statement by the couple.
“We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that
has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts,” said the joint statement.
Tarar, the mother of a13-year-old son and an Op-ed writer and a contributor to a Pakistani daily, tweeted up a storm since the saga started playing out on social media, shooting off uncharitable barbs at Sunanda and defending herself. Tarar dismissed the allegations as untrue and said she was totally amused. She said Sunanda has gone out of her mind.
“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,” the journalist said in a series of tweets. After Tharoor’s joint statement was issued, Tarar tweeted: “The wife trashed the husband. Now doing WTH damage control.”
Targeting Pushkar, Tarar tweeted that she had 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.
“So I ‘stalk’ on BBM and phone. The last I checked it was a two-way thing, or maybe technology changed while I ‘stalkedIJ”
Tarar said she had great respect for Tharoor and that everything about him on her Twitter account was on her timeline. She said Tharoor’s view on politics had always fascinated her. How can somebody stalk on phoneIJ she asked, and added Sunanda’s tweets are crazy.
The journalist said she met Tharoor for the first time for an interview. “It was a pleasure to meet him. His views as a politician fascinated me,” said Tarar, who describes herself as a ‘housewife and a mother.”
Pushkar claimed her information from Pakistan was that the journalist was “wired” to suggest she had links with an Intelligence agency. Pushkar also said she indeed had sent out a few tweets to 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. I was just trying to tell my husband that stay away from her because it’s an 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 admi.” I get upset. I am a human being,” she said.