After a tussle that caused quite an embarrassment to the previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office, India's new PM Narendra Modi finally took charge of the official PMO Twitter account.
The Twitter handle was updated on Tuesday with Modi's details and reflected along with its million-plus followers.
Singh's official Communications Adviser Pankaj Pachauri had reportedly decided to archive the old account, to comply with the Right To Information (RTI) Act. But while doing that, he also threw away the million-plus followers of the PMO handle.
In his defence, Pachauri told Hindustan Times that he had followed the procedure as per the RTI Act, and had surrendered the official account while all other communications were archived.
However, Modi's team was not happy with the decision. They raked up quite an opposition which was joined in by many on Twitter, who thought of it as a cheap parting shot from the outgoing Congress party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised Singh's office and claimed that the Twitter account @PMOIndia is a national digital asset. And the Congress' act was branded disgraceful, unethical and illegal.
And following the widespread criticism, Singh's office finally gave in and assured that all social media platforms will be handed over to the new PMO, along with the million-plus followers on @PMOIndia.
The PMO handle under Modi became active on Tuesday but any official post is yet to be put up. Modi is quite active on social media and has quite a fan-following on his personal Twitter handle and Facebook page.
Recently, Modi's personal Twitter handle was in news the world over, after it was found that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe followed only three people on Twitter, and one of them is Modi.
Abe also follows a 67-year-old Japanese journalist and social critic, by the name of Naoki Inose, while the third person in the list is his wife Akie Abe.
