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Rumors are flying thick and fast about just why what happened did happen. Why did the Prime Minister's office rather absurdly take its twitter account to a new handle @PMOIndiaArchive? One conspiracy theory goes that the old account had sent more than 300 DMs (Direct Messages) to a select TV channel which the office did not want to reveal. This sounds spurious because DMs can be deleted.
And thus, one can't help but infer that this was the digital version of the same syndrome that plagues politicians in real life - their inability to cede control. The PMO's twitter handle did after all have 1.2 million followers and given how prone our leaders are to pettiness, especially in defeat, one can imagine that the previous administration didn't want to transfer that kind of following to the BJP on a platter.
And thus, one can't help but infer that this was the digital version of the same syndrome that plagues politicians in real life - their inability to cede control. The PMO's twitter handle did after all have 1.2 million followers and given how prone our leaders are to pettiness, especially in defeat, one can imagine that the previous administration didn't want to transfer that kind of following to the BJP on a platter.
Didn't anybody tell them that Narendra Modi has over 4 million followers and that his clout on social media will, it would seem, ensure a far bigger following for the new PMO handle in due course anyhow?
'The @PMOIndia account has been vacated to facilitate handover to the new administration' defended Manmohan Singh's communications adviser Pankaj Pachauri after a brouhaha on the micro blogging site. 'This gives the next administration the flexibility of choosing the same name or start with a new handle.'
It's not an argument that stands to reason. The PMO's twitter handle is a national digital asset of the government and not of a single party or person. By Pachauri's logic, all government officialdom including the PIB should also vacate their physical offices and let the new PM's media team choose a fresh location. Whatever happened to the bureaucracy's duty to ensure continuity in governance and enable a smooth transition which as BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi noted was the 'hallmark of the Indian constitution'?
A cyber law expert speaking with the Mint newspaper said the handle needed to be passed on to the next government without “diminishing the value or utility of the electronic resource, failing which those liable could be punished under the relevant sections of the information technology (IT) Act 2000 (amended in 2008)."
Another expert Vijayashankar was quoted by the same paper as saying that "the officials who thought that the handle can be retained by the erstwhile government seem to be not aware of the concept of ‘Trade Mark” and deserve to be sent out of the responsible positions they are now in...”
One could still have understood the reason behind such confusion had Singh been using the PMO handle to personally to communicate with his followers. But as J&K CM Omar Abdullah observed, he wasn't and in all likelihood will not be doing so in future as well.
This entirely avoidable episode will be looked at as yet another example of how deeply politicized our bureaucracy has become. It also reflects on the inadequacies of the country's lethargic babudom and the challenge they face in shaking off a deeply ingrained culture of ineptitude as they face up to the digital age. Nothing other than digital illiteracy can explain the ignorance of PMO officials who sought to do what they did.
Finally it is also a testament of how important a political tool the social media has become not only prior to and during, but after elections as well for parties to continue their games of oneupmanship.
