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Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has finally debuted on Twitter. The decision is several years too late, and a week after the 44-year-old leader stood up in the Lok Sabha to bat for 'net neutrality', an effort that people saw as opportunistic given Rahul's reluctance at engaging with social media.
Technically, the Gandhi scion is still not on the micro-blogging site. It is the @OfficeofRG. People close to him say Rahul will soon start a twitter handle under his name. But it would be unrealistic to expect his engagement on social media to be as effervescent as fellow politicians like Shashi Tharoor, Jay Panda or Derek O'Brien.
But then, it is the intent that should count. And Rahul, as a possible future leader of India, should be applauded for finally taking the 'brave' plunge. Incidentally, Rahul is son of Rajiv Gandhi, whose foresight helped India's IT revolution when those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ilk were shouting "machination is abomination (sic)". Tables are now turned.
Modi, the man Rahul aspires to unseat in 2019, is 20-years older to the Congress leader but somewhat of a whiz on social media. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal wrote about 'How India's Modi became a social media superstar'. Modi has 12 million followers on Twitter and has encouraged his ministerial colleagues and party leaders to be more proactive on social media.
In contrast, the Congress-led UPA government, with Rahul as one of its leading lights, had vilified and victimised those of their own, like Tharoor, for being active on social media. SM Krishna, the then External Affairs Minister of India and a Gandhi family loyalist, even asked his foreign secretary Nirupama Rao to reduce her social media presence. Rao had become immensely popular because of her able handling of social media that made the octogenarian Krishna insecure.
Back to the present: the first few tweets by @OfficeofRG have been anodyne, relating to Rahul's upcoming political tours. It would, however, be fun if Modi chooses to not only follow Rahul on twitter but engage with him on the social media site. Modi has a talented bunch of people managing his social media back office.
Can Rahul, who leads a party of 44 characters (MPs), take on Modi in the world of 140 characters? Rahul, by the evidence of him copying from his phone a message of solidarity onto the visitor's book at Nepal embassy recently, is diffident about his drafting skills.
Here is hoping that Rahul will somehow overcome his timidity and bait Modi on twitter, and the PM would respond in kind. That would make for an exciting run up to the 2019 battle.
