A tweet gone awry
Twitter: That’s my latest fad exactly as was Facebook an year back. Though I am still loyal to the latter but I see myself going to former first. You get a sense of being served with the first hand news right from the horse’s mouth (Yes you read horse and not cow ;)). Of course, I still read online news but get most of the confirmations right here. Have most of the top journalists, bollywood biggies, tennis stars, and friends on my list. Looking forward to more and more meaningful people joining in as we all need authentic news.
What instigated me to write about Twitter is the latest infamous controversy of Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, Govt of India, tweeting about austerity drive that had reached ridiculous heights. Let me briefly take you to where it began.
KG: @ShashiTharoor Are you flying cattle class to Ghana/Liberia? Hopefully you won’t use VIP lounge where coffee, tea are served free…
ST: @KanchanGupta absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!
ST: learned belatedly of fuss over my tweet replying to journo’s query whether i wld travel to Kerala in “cattle class”. His phrase which i rptd.)
KG: Were your words distorted? I don’t think so. You were quoted verbatim.
KG: And frankly I didn’t quite expect you to say, ‘His phrase which i rptd’. Pity you can’t stand up for what you say.
Well! that were some of the conversations that took place though ST replied only once. Now people expect to get explanations in 140 characters, firstly they expect response/replies and when they get one they try to extract hypothetical hidden meanings in it. My take on it is that journalists take liberties of the free press to morally assassinate anyone and everyone cos they know they won’t be held for it. Who is this KG? Some insignificant rattler in Pioneer which doesn’t even have as much number of readership as many twitter followers ST has and growing.
Really liked the article by Chetan Bhagat on the same Timely tweet: Gimme performance, stop posturing. Brilliant one by Karan Thapar Oh, to be poor. Shobhaa De had another point of view Twitter less, work more, all will be forgiven. She probably isn’t on Twitter and obviously is not following him to know what all he is doing. As i said in my tweet too it’s like saying do not sms, do not grow, do not fall for technology, do not keep pace with the world. All but incidently ST is also a journalist with great sense of humour which landed him into this. Had he not been a politician, all these fellow journalists would have applauded at his great ability for impromptu wit.
Dear Indians, Our country needs intelligent, well educated, modern politicians like him. He at least has the guts to say it all loud of that he is doing. Let me enlighten you a bit that Mr. Governer Schwarzenegger who is also on Twitter even posts pics and videos of what he is doing. Does it mean that he is doodling around in his office? So does Prez. Obama. Well! Whom am I talking to.
So finally what will happen is Mr. Tharoor will get choked by the bureaucratic farce of sorts. I am afraid this episode might just force him to withdraw or definitely cut down on his interactions out here. We certainly hope not. Oh! Will this reflect on his blog too????
CRArtStudio 
Rekha,as I began to read you I instantly had Chetan Bhagat’s article in mind and was planning to share it with you.But as I read your post further,noticed you’d linked the article here itself.I liked the article too very much.
Honestly I felt the whole hullabaloo over Mr Tharoor’s tweets was ridiculous.All it was needed for our beloved politicians to do was take the whole thing in the right spirit!But they are what they are and its a pity!
And the latest is that Mrs Gandhi apparently has asked Shashi Tharoor to keep it mild… so much for right to freedom of expression..phew!
I know yaar..its just disgusting how people can pull you down. Hey whats your twitter id?
Arre,I opened a twitter a/c months back,but I’ve not posted a single tweet 😀
I had thought I could be regular,but I cant,re…with blogging & wordtwist I’ve enough addiction to keep me occupied 🙂
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