Twitter bird entices Ministry of External Affairs

New Delhi, Jul 10: The former Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, may have been penalised for his obsession with Twitter, but the Ministry of External Affairs now seems to be keen on jumping into the world of internet and social media.

The ministry on Thursday, Jul 10 opened up an account on the popular micro-blogging site, Twitter, under the user name Indiandiplomacy.

Even though the officials are still not ready to go out and publicise the account as they term it 'work in process', the ministry's Twitter account has already achieved popularity through word of mouth and enjoys a rapidly growing list followers.

As of Saturday, Jul 10 afternoon, the account had over 480 followers.

MEA has so far tweeted twice. The latest post simply reads, "Official twitter account of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs, India."

On what to expect from the Twitter account, the officials said that it would be 'interactive' in nature but refused to speak further on it, a news agency reported on Saturday, Jul 10.

This step from MEA could be seen in line with the recent seminars being organised by the ministry"s publicity division to make the foreign policy-making process an inclusive one.

Even though all the branches of the government have set up websites, they have hesitated from entering the world of social media on the internet.

However, MEA's step forward is a commendable one.

This comes months after the Delhi traffic police set up Twitter and Facebook accounts and Karnataka Criminal Investigative Department (CID) entered the world of Twitter.

OneIndia News