Controversy over his wife's mysterious death haunts Tharoor again

New Delhi: The Congress MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor is not new to controversies. Former UN diplomat and a celebrated author Shashi Tharoor's candidature from Thiruvananthapuram in 2009 had led to a huge controversy in Kerala. The local Congress leaders were against an 'outsider' like Tharoor contesting from there. They had even questioned his fluency in Malayalam. But, Tharoor dared to contest and won. An impressed Congress President Sonia Gandhi even made him a minister of state for foreign affairs immediately, causing a heart burn to many other aspirants.

A few months after he took charge as a minister, his stay at a 5-star hotel in New Delhi became a big issue. The then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ordered him to vacate his hotel suit and move into a modest government accommodation.

A month later, Tharoor's tweet on 'cattle class' caused a lot of embarrassment for the government. In a response to a tweet on government's austerity drive, Tharoor had tweeted that "he too was travelling in the cattle class like many others". Tharoor had to apologise for hurting the sentiments of economy class passengers.

In April 2010, Tharoor was forced to quit as a minister after his alleged links with a Kochi IPL franchise was exposed. He was accused of helping Sunanda Pushkar to clinch a deal. It was vehemently denied by the both. Eventually, Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar got married ending the controversy and rumours.

Shashi Tharoor returned to the Union Cabinet as a minister of state for HRD in October 2012. But, the controversies did not end with it. The 'strained' relationship with Sunanda became public. Some tabloids and social media platforms made it public. It was once again denied by the both.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (as Gujarat CM) had even called Sunanda a Rs 50 crore girlfriend of Tharoor. It had attracted a lot of criticism.

The controversy over his 'hacked' Twitter account was the most damning. It ended in the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar at a five star hotel in New Delhi. The BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy had described it as a murder and demanded a CBI probe into the death. But, Sunanda's brother and her son from a previous marriage gave a clean chit to Tharoor.

Everybody thought that Shashi Tharoor's political career was over with his third wife's death. But, he proved them wrong by securing the Congress ticket once again and even winning Thiruvananthapuram seat by a small margin in a very tough election. He was accused of distributing money to some Christian clergy for votes during the election campaign. Tharoor had rubbished the allegations as politically motivated.

The latest revelations by Dr. Sudhir Gupta of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have once again brought the focus back on Tharoor's wife's mysterious death.

Tharoor is now an opposition MP and the Congress is not even the official opposition party in the Lok Sabha. Tharoor is even accused of trying to please the Prime Minister Narendra Modi by writing an article praising him in Huffington Post.

Will he be able to clear his name this time? Only the time will tell.