Support Tharoor, Twitter minister Shashi Tharoor

Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 by ---- | 0 comments
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Popularly known as the ”Twitter minister” for his high level of involvement on the microblogging site, Shashi Tharoor who stepped down as minister for external affairs late Sunday, has found support among many netizens logged on to the service.

”Indian Politics will not improve. Only people with even don’t know how to write ’ABCDEF’ can sustain there (Eg: Azhagiri). Not for Tharoor”, tweeted a user named ’diasbaby’.

”How can Manmohan Singh be a ’man of integrity’ by sacking Tharoor and keeping Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, D Raja..” asked the editor of Pragati, Nitin Pai, who tweets under the handle ’Acorn’.
Similar outpourings of support for the embattled minister were forthcoming, with people referring to his resignation as a ”black day for democracy” and angrily pointing out that he was a ”victim” and a ”soft target”.

On a similar vein there was a lot of anger against IPL chief Lalit Modi (twitter handle LalitKModi), who has been the other player in the whole controversy that culminiated in Tharoor’s resignation.

”Episode Tharoor over... Now time for Modi to get axed... ” said a user named ’swatterhamon, while ’thekarachikid’ likened Modi to the bullying ”whiney dude from 3 idiots”. Yet another tweet from ”madversity” called him ”the more expereinced slimeball”. Yet another user named ’leoindian’ said ”I support Sasi Tharoor, Lalit modi moordabad, i hate that man, personification of deceitful machinations, co-ordinator of black mony lenderz”

In the meantime a news report from CNN IBN titled ”Knives out for Modi” which hinted that the BCCI is planning to crack down on Modi, is doing the rounds, with little comments like ”Made my Monday morning” and ”modi soon to be in trouble? :)”

Tharoor who built a strong support base on Twitter during his 2009 election campaign has regularly used it as a means of ’reaching out’ to his supporters. His account currently has 724,396 followers. However his frequent updates have also got Tharoor into trouble, starting from the time he used the adjective ”cattle class” to describe aircraft economy class. In this particular controversy however, he largely kept his views off Twitter until the very end when he tweeted ”I’ve had enough” and put up a link to a written statement on the issue.

Modi on the other hand, notably used the service to first reveal Tharoor’s alleged involvement in the Kochi IPL team and open the proverbial can of worms. He was since warned about his Twitter usage and now restricts himself to tweeting about match results and the tournament. His last major updates have been about the Chennai Super Kings victory and the bomb blasts in Bangalore that have caused the venue of the semi finals to be shifted to Mumbai. He has 73,797 followers at present.

Tharoor’s last update on his own Twitter account was made three days ago, and have largely revolved around attempts to clear his name. His last tweet, made three days ago reads ”Thanks for all the support & good wishes.U folks are the new India.We will ”be the change” we wish to see in our country. But not w’out pain!”

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