Following furore over its decision to archive the Twitter account of the Prime Minister’s Office under the outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the PMO announced that ‘arrangements’ have been made to hand over all digital assets to the incoming PMO of the Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi.
The PMO said in a statement the account @PMOIndia had been secured by Twitter and they were assisting in the handover of the same, alongwith its followers, to the present office to be available to the incoming PMO administration.
The existing material on Dr. Singh would be separately available under a new account on Twitter.
“All PMO Internet-based platforms and communications therein will continue to remain under the administrative control and management of the PMO after the change-over of the government.”
“The transfer of these digital assets to the incoming PMO administration has been arranged. The archiving process is under way so that all archived material can also be available to the public,” the statement said.
It said that over the last two years, the PMO’s engagement with the general public had increased manifold due to social media outreach and currently the office had four Internet-based platforms.
They are the official website pmindia.gov.in; Twitter- @PMOlndiaArchive; Facebook Page-www.facebook.com/PMOfficeIndia; and Youtube Channel- www.youtube.PMofficeindia.
Legally and technically, the PMO was on a sound footing as the move was in line with the provisions of the Right to Information Act (RTI).
Pankaj Pachauri, outgoing PM’s media adviser, had tweeted: “An advisory: All our official communications are being archived according to the RTI Act. Copyrights and control remain with the office.”
However, with the account being archived over 1.4 million followers of the PMO Twitter account were out overnight.
Hours after the PMO chose to archive the Twitter handle, a furious BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi dubbed ‘disgraceful, unethical and illegal’ the way the outgoing team handling the @PMOIndia Twitter account had conducted the transition of this national digital asset. “Continuity in governance and all government assets is the hallmark of the Indian Constitution. The Twitter account @PMOIndia is a national digital asset. We hope better sense prevails and the tweets of outgoing @PMOIndia are archived according to legal procedures and a smooth transition takes place with this national digital asset, the Twitter handle of @PMOIndia which must become available to the new incoming government. @PMOIndia is not a personal asset, it is a national asset,” Ms. Lekhi said.
The Congress sought to downplay the controversy over the PMO’s decision to close down its official twitter account. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor dismissed the controversy as a “storm in a twitter teacup” the BJP’s criticism over the PMO’s step.
“PMOIndia handle will remain for the new PMO. Twitter authorities will give it to them. It is only the earlier tweets of the previous PM and the PMO that have been archived. So I think the whole controversy is a storm in a twitter teacup,” he said.
