Vikrant Jeet, 20, an engineering student, is regularly following sports minister Ajay Maken’s Twitter account @ajaymaken ever since cricketer Yuvraj Singh fell ill and Maken announced government’s support. Maken has been on Twitter for some time now with thousands of followers like Jeet.
Recently the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Manmohan Singh @PMOIndia entered the fray too. The stated objective is to explore ways to best utilise the social networking site to address common people. PM made a somewhat late entry to social networking. But several leaders such as Omar Abdullah, Naveen Jindal, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Subramanian Swamy and Digvijay Singh are very active on the Net. The trend of course was started by Shashi Tharoor a few years back.
GenY feels glad to see more and more Indian politicians on the Net. “Just like the politicians from the West such as Barack Obama and John McCain, Indian politicians are now waking up to the virtual world. I feel great interacting with our leaders on twitter and Facebook,” says Jeet.
And leaders reciprocate. Tarunima Sen, 27, was ecstatic when she received a prompt reply from Sushma Swaraj on Twitter after she complained about the condition of roads around the NCR region. “It is networking of a different kind where everything is transparent and you can directly approach a leader and share your views,” observes Sen.
Naveen Jindal @MPNaveenJindal has been on Twitter since August last year and the young industrialist and MP feels that such social sites come in handy to reach out to youngsters. “You are not dependent on anyone to express your views. You can directly express your reaction through tweets,” he says. Jindal is planning to have a Facebook account soon. “I am open to criticism but it is also important to get feedback from people,” he adds.
Omar Abdullah @abdullah_omar, the CM of Jammu and Kashmir, is a big favourite among youngsters. Abdullah, unlike most politicians, doesn’t just update his political view. He has a different side to him. “He is witty. That reflects his cool personality,” says Bedatri Roy D Choudhury, 22, from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Derek O Brien, Trinamool MP, has more than 59,000 followers on Twitter. He also has an official Facebook Fan Page called Derek O’Brien & Associates. “Twitter is my comfort zone. However, my colleagues at Derek O’Brien & Associates handle the stuff on Facebook. But every single tweet on Twitter is mine,” he admits.
But how comfortable are the politicians sharing their personal information online? Replies Jindal, “I am not one of those who would like to update unnecessary information. I am not an impulsive tweeter.” Seconds Derek, “I am reasonably open but some things always remain private.”