Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor

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Updated Dec 09, 2022 at 08:51AM EST by Rebecca Rhodes.

Added Dec 07, 2022 at 03:42PM EST by sakshi.

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About

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and ex-diplomat serving under the banner of the Indian National Congress Party in the south Indian state of Kerala. He is known for his verbose social media presence, and for being a person of interest regarding the death of his wife, businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar, in the year 2014.

Biography

Career

Tharoor began his career as a staff member at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and spent 23 years as a career diplomat. He returned to India to contest the Lok Sabha state-level elections in Kerala under the banner of the Indian National Congress. He was appointed Union Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs in subsequent years— however, this post was shortlived, partly due to his "indiscreet use of the online microblogging service Twitter to send tweet messages about his personal life and professional career." [1]



Online History

Tharoor was the Indian politician with the largest Twitter following until 2013 when he was overtaken by Narendra Modi. [2] He has gained notoriety for his verbose manner of speaking both online and in real life, a habit he credits to an upbringing as a debate student. [3]

Sunanda Pushka Murder Investigation

Tharoor became a person of interest in the investigation into the 2014 murder of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. Her death came a few days after she took over Tharoor's Twitter page to expose a series of conversations between Tharoor and Mehr Tarar, a Pakistani journalist. The tweets were posted on January 15th, 2014, and have since been deleted but can be accessed via a news article by India Times (seen below).[4]


Tweets All / No replies Shashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor Sorry folks, my @Twitter account has been hacked & will be temporarily deactivated. Bear with me while we solve this. Expand 53s Reply 13 RetweetFavorite Buffer *** More Shashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor have your personal validation of my words, I don't need any public one. For that I will wait until we are together publically really mehr + Reply 13 RetweetFavorite Buffer *** More Expand Expand Shashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor 13m You unfollowed me. You don't RT me and you don't answer me on twitter. I can live with your favourites. I have your personal validation Expand Reply 13 RetweetFavorite Buffer *** More Shashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor Shashi. I'm not crying any more. I'm not falling to pieces. I'm more lucid than ever. How little I knew you became visible to me.@mehrtarar 8m 31m +Reply 13 RetweetFavorite Buffer *** More

Pushkar went on to make a statement to the Economic Times accusing Tarar of being an ISI (Pakistani Intelligence) agent.[5] On January 17th, 2014, Pushkar was found dead in her hotel room. News18's official Twitter account posted news of the story on January 17th, gathering over 40 likes in eight years (seen below, left).[6] Mehr Tarar also took to her Twitter to post a response, gathering over 200 likes in eight years (seen below, right).[7]


News18 @CNNnews18 → Official Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar found dead in Delhi's Leela Hotel bit.ly/1dXT3n4 #RIP IBN Live 11:34 AM - Jan 17, 2014 112 Retweets 40 Likes ENN IBN Mehr Tarar @MehrTarar What the hell. Sunanda. Oh my God. 11:27 AM - Jan 17, 2014 634 Retweets 1 Quote Tweet 211 Likes

Exasperating Farrago Of Distortions

On May 8th, 2017, Tharoor took to Twitter[8] again to respond to continued allegations of his involvement in his wife's murder, saying "Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalist." The post gathered over 9,000 likes in over four years (seen below).


Shashi Tharoor @Shashi Tharoor Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalst 11:48 AM - May 8, 2017 4,519 Retweets 2,185 Quote Tweets 9,322 Likes

The tweet became the subject of various memes due to Tharoor's long-standing reputation for having arcane and confusing words in his daily vocabulary. On May 8th, 2017, Twitter[9] user @Sagarcasm posted a tweet joking about Tharoor's speech, gathering over 2,000 likes in over five years (seen below, left). Also on May 8th, Twitter[10] user @c_aashish posted a graph of Google searches for the word "Farrago" after Tharoor's tweet, gathering nearly 400 likes in over five years (seen below, right).


Sagar @sagarcasm Kid- How was I born? Dad- God put you in your mom's stomach Kid- Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations & outright lies 9:31 PM - May 8, 2017 1,258 Retweets 80 Quote Tweets 2,213 Likes ... Aashish Chandorkar @c_aashish Farrago on Google search after the Tharoor tweet. Farrago Search term + COMPARE 100 Explore Interest over time 75 50 25 India, Past day 7 May at 22:... 12:25 PM . May 8, 2017 8 May at 07:06 8 May at 16:10 : â €

Various Examples


The nation wants to know Mr. Tharoor, The nation wants to know. Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalist. INTERNATIONAL CHALU UNION Ok, may be the nation is not ready yet. 14 yr old me looking at my crush while she says 'ek extra pencil hai kya?' टीवी SwatKat @swatic12 ESD 234 240 Dr. Farooq Abdullah, J&KNC, Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) IN THE ALLE 6:05 AM - Apr 6, 2022 MIC www BASANTI I IMPLORE YOU 74 DO NOT PIROUETTE IN FRONT OF THESE BARBARIAN CANINES @Atheist Krishna W W W ) Fe Shashi Tharoor making his acting debut in Aarya looks promising

Search Interest

External References

[1] Brittanica – Shashi Tharoor

[2] India Today – Modi Topples Tharoor

[3] Wikipedia – Shashi Tharoor

[4]  India Times – Sunanda Pushkar

[5] Economic Times – Sunanda Pushkar

[6] Twitter – CNNnews18

[7] Twitter – MehrTarar

[8] Twitter – ShashiTharoor

[9] Twitter – Sagarcasm

[10] Twitter – c_aashish

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