Rajnath Singh uses Twitter to get visa for Pakistan national

The Twitter e-governance model was on full display recently when none other than Union home minister Rajnath Singh used the social media platform to extend medical aid to an ailing Pakistani national who sought immediate medical attention in India. After tweeting to the ministry of external affairs, Santosh Maheswari, who is a computer engineering student in Gujarat’s Patan, tweeted on the home minister’s Twitter handle seeking the ministry of home affairs intervention to facilitate a medical visa for his cousin, a Pakistani national who was getting treatment in Dubai. When doctors in Dubai asked Bharat Maheswari to go to India and get medical treatment, they came knocking on Rajnath Singh’s Twitter handle.

In the middle of Christmas festivities, when the regular process of a medical visa for a Pakistani national would have taken very long, the HMO India Twitter handle did all the work. The Twitter handle responded immediately, asking for complete details so that appropriate action could be taken. Now, in a matter of days, the medical visa has been granted to Maheshwari.

“@snpatan889 Maheshwariji your request for medical visa has been cleared,” said the HMO Twitter handle after which the family based in Gujarat has thanked the home minister profusely.

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which is all out to use social media to reach out to the masses, this episode has surely gone down as a first reference when it will talk about its e-governance platforms.