The death of Sunanda Pushkar, just a few days after her Twitter outburst, was indeed a shock to everyone. Before her death, there were a considerable amount of jokes on her relationship with Shashi Tharoor due to the Mehr Tarar angle, as is the case with celebrities whose personal lives are always topics of page-3 reports.
However, some people decided to blame Twitter for her death, arguing that such jokes, which Twitter users crack on anyone and everyone, pushed Sunanda into depression and then suicide:
Mahesh Bhatt
Social Media encourages cowards& haters to spout the most ugly things that they would never dare to say in real life to people face to face
— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) January 18, 2014
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Kunal Kohli
RT @timesnow : It’s disturbing what social media(twitter) can lead to: Filmmaker Kunal Kohli on Sunanda Pushkar’s death
— V¡n¤†h♥VJ (@Nanbanvinoth) January 17, 2014
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Sudhir Chaudhary, editor at Zee News
Twitter just claimed a life! Sunanda Pushkar is dead.Got this news at #ZEEJLF .Every1shocked.Shashi Tharoor was supposed to speak here tom.
— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) January 17, 2014
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Kashish (a part time journalist at NDTV)
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit….. The double-edged sword of social media killed Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor!
— kashish (@_kashish_) January 17, 2014
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Shailesh Yadav, a journalist at Aaj Tak
RIP Sunanda, It is a Murder, and the murderer it Twitter.
— Shailesh yadav (@shaileshyadav75) January 18, 2014
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Suketu Mehta, a professor at NYU
terrible news about sunanda tharoor. this is murder by twitter. http://t.co/fh6HpnTkTz
— suketu mehta (@suketumehta) January 17, 2014
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Some may have deleted their tweets or used some other medium, but user reactions indicate what they did say:
Suhel Seth
@suhelseth You are accusing Twitter for Sunanda’s death? It was a spat that she brought to a public forum and no one dragged her into it
— Rekha Ramaswamy (@rekharamaswamy) January 17, 2014
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Suhel Seth,a close friend of the couple says we have to look at what role did Twitter play in Sunanda’s demise
— sonia singh (@soniandtv) January 17, 2014
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Vir Sanghvi
Still in shock. And Vir Sanghvi blames her twitter interactions for Sunanda’s death? I mean are you fucking kidding me.
— Lutyens Impersonator (@vjshanks) January 17, 2014
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While some said it explicitly, some chose to drop hints:
Barkha Dutt
From Sunanda tragedy comes a reminder to all of us here on Twitter- keep compassion alive,dont be in a haste to judge,keep vicousness at bay
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) January 18, 2014
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Harinder Baweja, journalist at Hindustan Times
Moral of the sad Sunanda story. Each of us on Twitter need to exercise restraint.
— harinder baweja (@shammybaweja) January 17, 2014
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And of course MSM picked it from there:
Running stories in Print
Do you agree with this news by Eco Times on #Sunanda Pushkar ‘Murder by Twitter…’ @BDUTT @soniandtv pic.twitter.com/mk0WYxD8q6
— Pallava Bagla (@pallavabagla) January 18, 2014
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And conducting polls online
Get off twitter, you HT DBags. RT @htTweets POLL: Is social media in any way to blame for Sunanda Pushkar’s death? VOTE:
— Ajayendar Al-Aryan (@ajayendar) January 17, 2014
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We hope Twitter is exonerated soon.
And hope these people realize that knowingly or unknowingly, they were shielding the real culprit by blaming Twitter for what now is a clear case of murder.
