Fight breaks out over Prime Minister's Twitter handle, BJP terms move 'unethical'

Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 20:52 [IST]

PM's Twitter handle rakes up controversy

New Delhi, May 20: The BJP seems to be miffed with the Prime Minister's office just days before BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will take the oath as the country's PM.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Tuesday changed the Twitter handle of @PMOIndia to @PMOIndiaArchive. This didn't go down well with the BJP who termed the move as ‘unethical and ungraceful.'

BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi said ‘what has happened with the @PMOIndia account is disgraceful.'

Many said that instead of archiving the account the PMO should've simply handed over the account to Narendra Modi or his team.

This move soon drew huge criticism on Twitter-

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" lang="en"><p>How churlish!!! Just hand over the twitter account. It's not like Dr Manmohan Singh was actually using it himself or will use it much now.</p>— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) <a href="https://twitter.com/abdullah_omar/statuses/468751227488972800">May 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" lang="en"><p>That's odd. Dr. Manmohan Singh's tweets could have been saved on a separate twitter handle. PMO handle should have been handed over.</p>— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) <a href="https://twitter.com/smitaprakash/statuses/468722658192801792">May 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" lang="en"><p>New tweets in PMOindia, old was taken by Dr.Manmohan singh, great tragedy.</p>— sanjeev (@ca_sanjeevgodha) <a href="https://twitter.com/ca_sanjeevgodha/statuses/468771392809226240">May 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" lang="en"><p>What's the big deal about <a href="https://twitter.com/PMOIndia">@PMOIndia</a> old handle.The new PM will easily get triple the followers once he starts using it</p>— Ashwin Jain (@AshwiinJain) <a href="https://twitter.com/AshwiinJain/statuses/468769869735804928">May 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Meanwhile, former communications advisor to Manmhan Singh said that 'all our official communications are being archived according to the RTI Act. Copyrights and control remain with the office.'

OneIndia News

Published On May 20, 2014