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Tharoor uses Twitter as effective communication tool
The Ministry of External Affairs is all a-Twitter. Not because Indian diplomats have become net-savvy, but one of the new ministers of state is a frequent user of this social networking web tool.
- IANS
- Published: 23:36 June 3, 2009
- Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor is a frequent user of Twitter and posts late night entries on his Blackberry.
- Image Credit: AP
Bew Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs is all a-Twitter. Not because Indian diplomats have become net-savvy, but one of the new ministers of state is a frequent user of this social networking web tool.
Shashi Tharoor, a UN diplomat-turned-politician, has been tweeting since March 17 and used it as a communication tool during the poll campaign.
"In Kerala" was his first tentative tweet, which has now graduated to more expansive posts, recounting his tryst from becoming a MP to being a minister.
"And still one more dinner to go, with a section of the diplomatic corps at the splendidly renovated Hyderabad House. A real showcase bldg," he said on Tuesday.
Interestingly, social networking sites are blocked from the ministry's computer network - a result of a cautious policy to prevent foreign intrusions.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the Tharoor posts after taking over as the minister have been sent from his Blackberry, using a mobile client for Twitter.
Though there had been some tweets directly sent from twitter's web interface, but most of them were sent late at night, usually after midnight.
"First dinner by EAM for diplomatic corps. back on a beat i thought i'd left when i quit the UN. But better food here! spoke French after yrs," he tweeted at 12.29 am on Tuesday.
Currently, Tharoor has 4,511 people following him on Twitter. But he follows only two - his son, Kanishka and close aide, Jacob Joseph Puthen.
Incidentally, Tharoor had also linked to Rahul Gandhi's official Twitter account - www.twitter.com/rgamethi. But the account was withdrawn from last week, with only a web note stating 'That page doesn't exist!'.
Several members of the ministry have also signed up on twitter to follow their minister of state. Though, they can't log on to the website directly from work, they have activated their account to receive the tweets on their mobile phones.
The ministry had issued instructions to its members banning any blogs or use of Facebook or Orkut, as part of its cybersecurity guidelines.
Tharoor's boss, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna also has a twitter account, but the last post was on April 17.
His first tweet March 20 was a plea for help - "trying to understand this twitter. so what should i do now?"
His later posts showed increasing confidence. There was a slew of tweets till March 24, before a long hiatus and a last post April 17.
"I asked my assistant to book me a nano. when is booking open? i think we can do a karnataka tour in the nano," he said on March 22.
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