New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and a Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday responded to the remark made by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and veteran actor Anupam Kher for 'dragging' his late wife Sunanda Pushkar into the spar between the three over the movie - The Kashmir Files. Both Agnihotri and Kher had responded to Tharoor for sharing a media report that stated the film was banned in Singapore.
"Film promoted by India's ruling party #KashmirFiles, banned in Singapore," Tharoor had tweeted. Irked by the Congress MP's tweet, the director-actor duo slammed the former and even spoke about his late wife.
Responding to the remarks made by Agnihotri and Kher, Tharoor issued a statement and said that dragging his wife Sunanda into this matter was 'unwarranted' and 'contemptible'.
"I tweeted a factual news item this morning, with no comment on its contents or on the film 'The Kashmir Files', which I have not seen," Tharoor said in the statement.
"At no point did I 'mock' or disparage the sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits, of whose plight I am intimately aware, and to which I have repeatedly drawn attention over the years," he added.
"Dragging my late wife Sunanda into this matter was unwarranted and contemptible. No one is more aware of her views than I am. I have accompanied her to the destroyed ruins of her ancestral home in Bomai„ near Sopore„ and joined her in conversations with her Kashmiri neighbours and friends, both Muslim and Hindu. Pile thing I know, unlike those attempting to exploit her when she is not around to speak for herself: She believed in reconciliation, not hate," Tharoor's statement read further.
Agnihotri had asked Thooror whether Sunanda Pushkar was a Kashmiri Hindu and said that the Congress MP should delete his tweet and apologise to Sunanda's soul.
"Hey @ShashiTharoor, Is this true that Late Sunanda Pushkar was a Kashmiri Hindu? Is the enclosed SS true? If yes, then in Hindu tradition, to respect the dead, you must delete your tweet and apologise to her soul," Agnihotri wrote.
Kher too jumped into the spat and asked the politician to "show some sensitivity towards Kashmiri Pandits for Sunanda's sake".
"Dear @ShashiTharoor! Your callousness towards #KashmiriHindus genocide is tragic. If nothing else at least for #Sunanda's sake who was a Kashmiri herself you should show some sensitivity towards #KashmiriPandits & not feel victorious about a country banning #TheKashmirFiles!," Kher tweeted.
The Kashmir Files is a movie based on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, during the Kashmir insurgency. The movie, that made all kinds of impact in India was recently banned in Singapore by the country's InfoComm Media Development Authority on the grounds that it could disturb religious harmony.