Samikhsya Bureau
Not only followers were abuzz but even the media in India nearly went berserk when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had it on his tweeter that, he is likely to distance from all social media platforms. Although there had been no mention about a period for such detachment.
Heated debates accompanied with harangues from the opposition and askance from the ruling camp, the news anchors were in a tempestuous state to discover the reason behind the PM’s sudden decision.
It is an usual practice when a person active in the social media opt for a break from the time he or she chose necessary.
So did the prime minister, a man with one of the highest followers in the world, perhaps after Donald Trump. And he, while posting the message had assigned no reason to create any kind of brouhaha to ignite a frenzy among the people or the media.
But the maelstrom that has ensued through an over hyped exercise in the media, surely calls for an attention.
If the social media is such an indispensable part of governance, as deemed, then the earlier heads of states were not existing nor had they delivered nor were accepted as popular .
Right from the days of Nehru to the subsequent times, when the social media was almost non-existent, top leaders in India and elsewhere in the world had delivered.
When there were no trace of the Social Media, which plays a big role to generate leads, information exchange and expand one’s network or just about anything to boost up one’s connect politically and socially.
For Modi it has really paid in 2014 and it continued to bolster his social base. Now by saying that, he wants a break or cease to use the platforms cannot be an experiment for nothing.
For some it has stoked sentiments, for some it is a pain of disconnect and for some it is all about a strategy that politics is all about.
But, the quantum of response it has elicited must have had a tremendous amount of moral impetus that the prime minister, perhaps, was looking for.
But, he must not be unaware of the reality that, his adieu from the platforms is not going to cripple his governance.
Then why this hue and cry post his decision that, he be given a break from the furor of the platforms.
So, as it appears, there is hardly any pressing need to find out a moral equivalence between Modi or Trump, being in the platform or not. Neither Trump’s exit, if so, from the platforms can heal the wounds in Iran nor, Modi’s quitting the platform can affect his performance as the prime minister.
