Minister’s troubled wife apparently committed suicide in New Delhi.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Indian Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor, has died of an apparent suicide in New Delhi.
Details surrounding Pushkar’s sudden and rather shocking death, however, are somewhat murky. In the days leading up to her death, beginning on Wednesday, she was involved in a Twitter feud with a woman Pushkar believed to be Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, accusing her of having an affair with her husband.
Pushkar, 52, even tweeted several texts she claims she got off of her husband’s phone, that were sent by Tarar. One of them said “I love you, Shashi Tharoor. And I go while in love with you, irrevocably, irreversibly, hamesha [always]. Bleeding, but always your Mehr.” She told the public that Tarar was stalking her husband and had to be stopped.
Shortly thereafter, however, Pushkar admitted to having written the tweets initially but later denied it for unknown reasons, saying that her account was hacked. Tweeting on Thursday, she said that marriage was healthy and that she and Tharoor were not having problems. Speaking to NDTV on the same day, Pushkar said that her marital status was absolutely fine, but reiterated that she believed Tarar was trying to come between her and her husband.
She was then found around 9:00 PM local time, in suite 345 of The Leela Palaces Hotel in Chanakyapuri by her husband, who returned to their room after attending a conclave. Tharoor, 57, subsequently announced that he would not be attending the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Pushkar and Tharoor were married in Kerala in 2010, shortly after the latter was embroiled in a cricket controversy that forced him to abandon a critical government posting he had. He is currently the Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development and aMember of Parliament(MP) from the Thiruvananthapuram constit