On Tuesday morning, the twitterati exchanged news about how they had been in-boxed by none other than the Prime Minister.
Turns out, Narendra Modi’s PR machinery had churned out DMs to thousands — if not to millions — of his followers on the occasion of his first year in office. The message, addressing each recipient on a first name basis, contains “20 infographics” on how things have changed between "now and then.”
Among them, Mr. Modi says:
- India is on its way to becoming “a manufacturing giant”
- Make in India has pushed the index of industrial growth production from -0.1% to 2.8%
- Connecting with the diaspora had helped in “strengthening the bond with our own”
There was also an > Open Letter . Here are the top quotes:
1 | We have been able to restore trust in the government”, ensure a “corruption-free” rule and made state governments equal partners in the quest for national development, building the spirit of Team India |
2 | Runaway prices were immediately brought under control. The languishing economy was rejuvenated, building on stable and policy-driven proactive governance |
3 | Firm steps were taken against black money, from setting up an SIT and passing a stringent black money law, to generating international consensus against the same. |
4 | Numerous measures and schemes have been initiated from making school toilets to setting up IITs, IIMs and AIIMS, from providing vaccination cover to children to initiating a people-driven Swacch Bharat mission. |
He asked all his 12.5 million followers to “Share your thoughts using #SaalEkShuruaatAnek & get a personal message from me! Looking forward to hearing from you.”
Share your thoughts using >#SaalEkShuruaatAnek & get a personal message from me! Looking forward to hearing from you.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) >May 26, 2015
Sure enough, this 19-character hashtag was the top trender all morning even as most on Twitter responded with an element of incredulity.