Indian minister Shashi Tharoor's wife admits tweeting his alleged affair
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 16 January, 2014, 11:21pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 16 January, 2014, 11:36pm
Agence France-Presse in New Delhi
Shashi Tharoor. Photo: AP
The wife of the Indian government's top-tweeting minister admitted yesterday she hacked his account to send out messages exposing his alleged affair with a Pakistani journalist.
The scandal emerged after a curious series of messages appeared on the Twitter account of thrice-married human resources minister Shashi Tharoor.
They showed private exchanges apparently between 57-year-old Tharoor and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, 45, in which she professed her love for him and he explained that his wife had discovered his adultery.
His wife, Sunanda, who he wed in 2010, confessed to sending the messages and also dragged up a corruption scandal that nearly wrecked her husband's career. "That woman pursued and pursued him ... men are stupid anyway ... for all you know she is a Pakistani agent. Where's love, where's loyalty in this world?... I am so distraught," she told the Indian Express newspaper.
Tharoor (@shashitharoor) posted a message late yesterday to his two million followers claiming his account had been "hacked", while Tarar (@mehrtarar) denied having an affair with him in a series of messages.
Tharoor, a French-speaking former UN diplomat, had to resign from his first ministerial post in 2010 after revelations that Sunanda was given a free stake in a new cricket team in the money-spinning Indian Premier League.
Tharoor is the most active user of Twitter in the Indian government and he has been instrumental in encouraging colleagues to use the social media platform.
