This title may seem like a tweet at the wrong place, as it is intended to be so. This title in twitter lingo is dedicated to the recent remark of Shashi Tharoor posted on twitter. Shashi Tharoor is India's MoS for External Affairs (…who has been caught in an internal affair...). To bring everyone on the same page (…ya I hear a lot of this in office...it has to come out somewhere!…), let’s do a bit of background…Recently the Indian Govt. has laid down a directive that the central govt. ministers will have to do all their air travel in the economy class. This is only applicable while traveling within the country (…may be coz they believe in the great Indian saying - ghar ki baat ghar mein rahe…) . A bit of googling will land you up on a search results page listing snippets having the phrase “Indian Govt.’s austerity drive” (…don’t google now that’s why I have put it all here ;)…).
So when Mr. Tharoor, who is a regular on twitter was asked by an innocent someone (…this guy will surely be having a certain feeling of accomplishment at this moment…) that if he would stick to this directive, and travel in cattle class (...and so he used the term first) ? Mr. Tharoor had something interesting to tweet about it. This is what he posted as a reply-'Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!'. Note that this was not a comment made in any interview/to media, it was a simple little tweet. But the twist in the tweet came when the holy cows within his party described the remark as insensitive and uncalled for, painting a not so good image of Mr. Tharoor. And that’s when this became news and since then people have been searching for it.
This austerity drive launched by the govt. is an attempt by the govt. to express its solidarity with the mango-man (source:Love Aajkal) in a drought struck nation owing to an indifferent monsoon (…hope some of it has been compensated by the recent spells of heavy rainfall…even causing river Yamuna to kiss the danger mark). Guessing from the way the Indian mango-man’s sentimental flow usually is, the first thing one would expect is sharp criticism for Mr. Tharoor, but on searching on twitter for responses to this remark, a lot of results pop up which receive the remark with a bit of humor occasionally sprinkled with sarcasm (…as probably it was intended to be). Another reason for this observation can be that there aren’t enough specimens of the great Indian mango man on twitter! But let’s consider the former…just for the sake of it (FSI…if you have read it).
Mr. Tharoor has had a stain free reputation of an intellectual and was even billed as India’s candidate for the UN Secretary-General in 2006. His frank tone didn’t exactly make the right noise in his party’s ears but he has often utilized his right of free speech & expression (…which twitter has come to unofficially represent…). As was in another episode when he along with another minister was asked to vacate his room (serving as a temporary residence) in a five star hotel. He retorted back saying that he was paying the bills himself and not billing the govt. Although he had to vacate it like here also he has agreed that he will travel in the cattle class.
One thing all this has done is make twitter famous. Surely a lot more people have come to know about twitter following this incident. Already twitter is becoming more popular in India, although not at the speed at which Orkut accounts were initially created, but still I can say as the number of followers of mine (…this “followers” is totally a twitter term here :)…) have been constantly increasing. Coming to Tharoor, may be he will have to follow the rule “think before you tweet” because as of now there is no real block feature (which may prevent selected people to view your tweets) in twitter. This is another debate, which we’ll discuss another time!
So when Mr. Tharoor, who is a regular on twitter was asked by an innocent someone (…this guy will surely be having a certain feeling of accomplishment at this moment…) that if he would stick to this directive, and travel in cattle class (...and so he used the term first) ? Mr. Tharoor had something interesting to tweet about it. This is what he posted as a reply-'Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!'. Note that this was not a comment made in any interview/to media, it was a simple little tweet. But the twist in the tweet came when the holy cows within his party described the remark as insensitive and uncalled for, painting a not so good image of Mr. Tharoor. And that’s when this became news and since then people have been searching for it.
This austerity drive launched by the govt. is an attempt by the govt. to express its solidarity with the mango-man (source:Love Aajkal) in a drought struck nation owing to an indifferent monsoon (…hope some of it has been compensated by the recent spells of heavy rainfall…even causing river Yamuna to kiss the danger mark). Guessing from the way the Indian mango-man’s sentimental flow usually is, the first thing one would expect is sharp criticism for Mr. Tharoor, but on searching on twitter for responses to this remark, a lot of results pop up which receive the remark with a bit of humor occasionally sprinkled with sarcasm (…as probably it was intended to be). Another reason for this observation can be that there aren’t enough specimens of the great Indian mango man on twitter! But let’s consider the former…just for the sake of it (FSI…if you have read it).
Mr. Tharoor has had a stain free reputation of an intellectual and was even billed as India’s candidate for the UN Secretary-General in 2006. His frank tone didn’t exactly make the right noise in his party’s ears but he has often utilized his right of free speech & expression (…which twitter has come to unofficially represent…). As was in another episode when he along with another minister was asked to vacate his room (serving as a temporary residence) in a five star hotel. He retorted back saying that he was paying the bills himself and not billing the govt. Although he had to vacate it like here also he has agreed that he will travel in the cattle class.
One thing all this has done is make twitter famous. Surely a lot more people have come to know about twitter following this incident. Already twitter is becoming more popular in India, although not at the speed at which Orkut accounts were initially created, but still I can say as the number of followers of mine (…this “followers” is totally a twitter term here :)…) have been constantly increasing. Coming to Tharoor, may be he will have to follow the rule “think before you tweet” because as of now there is no real block feature (which may prevent selected people to view your tweets) in twitter. This is another debate, which we’ll discuss another time!
