NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi may be the world’s second most followed politician on twitter, driving the government’s agenda on social media, his council of ministers remain way behind with some yet to make an appearance on such platforms, much to the chagrin of the boss.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) recently took stock of the NDA government’s presence on social media. It was revealed that nearly 50 per cent of union ministers and one-third of ministries still don’t have verified social media accounts. But, officials expect all that to change after the first stock taking exercise, what with pressure coming right from the top.
The PMO had asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the nodal ministry imparting social media training to officials of other ministries, to prepare a review report of the performance of ministers and ministries on social media in the last 100 days. The review based on the basic parameter of number of followers found that only 26 of 44 union ministers and 20 of 60 ministries/departments have verified accounts on social media platforms. This is when just after taking over as PM Modi himself asked his cabinet colleagues and ministries to join social media platforms like Twitter, facebook, YouTube and blogs to “directly communicate” with the people.
While Modi and PMOIndia, the official twitter handle of PMO, have the largest number of followers in the NDA government, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan are top five cabinet ministers in the list.
The Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Human Resource Development are top five ministries with highest number of followers. Sources also drew attention to the fact that some leaders who were already on social media have become quite inactive after becoming ministers and similarly some ministries are not using these online platforms enough.
A training workshop imparting basic skills on how to operate social media accounts was conducted by the information and broadcasting ministry in the second week of July. Despite that, many ministries and even ministers are reluctant to come on such platforms or use it properly even if they are already there. Every ministry has appointed a nodal officer especially to handle social media accounts of that particular ministry.
“This is the first review after the government completed 100 days and things are still picking up when it comes to ministers and ministries becoming active on social media. We hope that it would change after this stock taking exercise is over with pressure coming from PMO,” said a source in the government, adding that the review is expected to become a weekly exercise soon.
Sources, however, informed that not everyone in government is unenthusiastic about it. “Since the first training in July, several ministry officials have personally approached us for solving doubts or training. Once everyone is online using these platforms, then we would go for second round of training so that online platforms can be used in the most optimum manner,” sources added.
Meanwhile, interestingly, while the PMO and PM has been sort of ruling the social media in India when it comes to describing the government’s initiative and communicating with masses, the people managing it are not known. In a reply to an RTI query about the identity of people managing Modi’s twitter account, money spent and other details, the PMO said social media platforms are handled by the PMO’s media cell and no special money has been allocated for the same.
“Even we don’t know anything about social media team of PMO as they work independently. They are professionals as they have been managing it effectively and promptly. We want all ministries to follow the suit but it will take time before we reach at the same level,” said a senior official in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.