Staying power

It is not often that a minister decides to stay back after his keynote speech to listen to the next speaker. But Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor's interest in the social media got the better of him. Soon after addressing a session on "Emergence of Social Media in Politics and Governance" in an information technology seminar in the capital, Tharoor was all set to make a quick exit when he was introduced to the next speaker, Waleed Rashed, a young Egyptian who along with his friends effectively used the social media to mobilise popular mass support during the anti-Mubarak rising at Egypt's Tahrir Square. The Twitter-loving minister changed his plans, quickly found a front row seat, and sat through Rashed's session on how a group of young people used the social media to drive home their message to the masses.