New Delhi, Jan 16 (Agencies): In an indecorous controversy surrounding Shashi Tharoor, the Union Minister's wife Sunanda Tharoor on Wednesday alleged that her husband was having an “extra-marital affair” with a Pakistan-based journalist.
Talking to a daily, Sunanda also said she would now “seek divorce” from Tharoor. The journalist has threatened to sue Sunanda and Tharoor's wife has welcomed the scribe's move.
The furious wife's statement came shortly after the suave thrice-married human resources minister claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked. Notably, some controversial tweets were posted from his account last evening, leaving the followers utterly astonished. The tweets referred to one Mehr Tarar, a Pakistani journalist.
The minister then claimed that his account had been hacked and and will be not functioning for a few days before the issues are sorted out. The controversial tweets, which have now been deleted, showed private exchanges apparently between 57-year-old Tharoor and Mehr Tarar, 45, in which she professed her love for him and he explained that his wife had discovered his adultery.
The controversy was about to die down when Sunanda declared that neither her or her husband's account has been hacked. As a matter of fact, it was she, who had logged into Tharoor's account and posted messages that the Lahore-based journalist had sent to her husband. She did it to show the world how Mehr “is stalking my husband".
Talking to a news daily, Sunanda also dragged up a corruption scandal that nearly wrecked her husband's career: "Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets. I cannot tolerate this. This is a Pakistani woman who is an ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) agent, and she is stalking my husband. And you know how men are. He is flattered by the attention. I took upon myself the crimes of this man during IPL (Indian Premier League). I will not allow this to be done to me. I just can't tolerate this. I have nothing more to say.”
On Thursday, Sunanda, however, denied logged into Tharoor's account, saying her's and her husband's accounts are still not working and Twitter is working on that. Talking to a news channel, Sunanda confirmed that the Pakistani journalist wants to have a life-long relationship with Tharoor, not knowing that he is a happily married man. I am sick and was away for three months for treatment. She followed Shashi to an event and fell in obsession, said the livid wife.
I did send out two-three tweets to the Pakistani journalist's account, added Sunanda. “The tweets that I sent today were that a woman should stay away from a woman's husband, it's not morally right.”
“Shashi is a happily married man with no intention of leaving his wife and his wife has no intention of leaving him,” declared Sunanda.
Sunanda claimed that the Pakistani woman tries to flirt with everyone.
Meanwhile, a joint statement has been issued by Sunanda and Shashi Tharoor, stressing that the duo are “happily married and intend to remain that way”. The couple is “distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts”.
“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.”
“Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy,” added the statement.