Blog and Tweet knives in politics: which is sharper?
In the past one year or so, blogs were seldom used to settle scores. At least not in Indian national scene. Senior politicians would reflect on others' actions and try to justify their own stand on political or social matters. It was time when BJP stalwarts, Advani, Jaitley and Modi wrote good blog posts on myriad matters. Some posts were excellent by all standards.
In those times, the job of shouting at each other by politicians themselves or their fans or trolls or back-end boys was done through Twitter.
Now we might see a new trend. Politicians, at least of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are fighting on blogs [Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Rakesh Parikh...]. The pour out their sentiments and disparage those of opponents on their blogs. That has happened in the last one month or so. We think, it might have to wait to become a trend, as no other party is undergoing tumult at present; they all have either total authoritarianism or disarray.
Twitter, as a medium is much more instant. You feel bad and you blurt it out on Twitter. By the time you realise you should not have done that, it already has travelled far. The juicier and destructive the tweet, the more it has chances to go viral. This time, it was the turn of Minister and ex-Chief of Army, VK Singh to rant on Twitter and repent at leisure. Remember his 'disgust', offer to resign and all sorts of rationalisation why he was seen at Pakistan's embassy in Delhi with Kashmiri separatists.
But hats off to PM Modi. He had a rather lengthy talk with Twitter chief, Dick Costolo, two days back in which he sought Twitter help in propagating his initiatives for cleanliness, saving and educating girls, etc.
The very next day, his tweets were available through SMS on giving a missed call to 01130063007. Just to update on Modi's Twitter stats, his personal account@NarendraModi has 11 million followers and his official account @PMOIndia has 5.42 million followers.
P.S.: AAP is also teaching Indian politicians the value of stings. For the last two years, its boss, Arvind Kejriwal, has been preaching all citizens to use sting as a weapon to expose misconduct of others; now stings are being used against its party colleagues. The one on Kejriwal himself beats them all: he is heard abusing senior party colleagues. Among social media platforms, that heralds the coming of YouTube for political fights. So, blogs lead to Twitter and then comes YouTube?
In those times, the job of shouting at each other by politicians themselves or their fans or trolls or back-end boys was done through Twitter.
Now we might see a new trend. Politicians, at least of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are fighting on blogs [Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Rakesh Parikh...]. The pour out their sentiments and disparage those of opponents on their blogs. That has happened in the last one month or so. We think, it might have to wait to become a trend, as no other party is undergoing tumult at present; they all have either total authoritarianism or disarray.
Twitter, as a medium is much more instant. You feel bad and you blurt it out on Twitter. By the time you realise you should not have done that, it already has travelled far. The juicier and destructive the tweet, the more it has chances to go viral. This time, it was the turn of Minister and ex-Chief of Army, VK Singh to rant on Twitter and repent at leisure. Remember his 'disgust', offer to resign and all sorts of rationalisation why he was seen at Pakistan's embassy in Delhi with Kashmiri separatists.
But hats off to PM Modi. He had a rather lengthy talk with Twitter chief, Dick Costolo, two days back in which he sought Twitter help in propagating his initiatives for cleanliness, saving and educating girls, etc.The very next day, his tweets were available through SMS on giving a missed call to 01130063007. Just to update on Modi's Twitter stats, his personal account
P.S.: AAP is also teaching Indian politicians the value of stings. For the last two years, its boss, Arvind Kejriwal, has been preaching all citizens to use sting as a weapon to expose misconduct of others; now stings are being used against its party colleagues. The one on Kejriwal himself beats them all: he is heard abusing senior party colleagues. Among social media platforms, that heralds the coming of YouTube for political fights. So, blogs lead to Twitter and then comes YouTube?
