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Tharoor all praise for Tweeters
of Muscat
By Kabeer Yousuf
MUSACT — Shashi Tharoor,
the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, is all praises for the
Tweeters of Muscat after a tête-à-tête he had with his online acquaintances
at the Indian embassy and mentions on Twitter site that the discussions were
very useful and the group was strong. “The Muscat Tweeter Group is a strong
one with more than 250 members and I had a really nice discussion session
with them and I’m looking forward to meet tweeters all over the Middle
East”, he mentions on the site after the first international tweet meet held
outside India, in Oman.
Tharoor, who has recently been shot to limelight for his comments on the
Twitter in India is on an official three-day visit to the Sultanate which
will conclude today. During his visit, he and his delegation met ministers
and officials for further exploring avenues of partnership. Speaking on the
relevance and importance of tweeting amid the busy schedules of a
politician, he said, “As far as I’m concerned, Twitter is a very easy medium
of getting to know what the opinion makers and the voices of the future
think about various issues. It is also a forum for me to give a portrait of
my personal and political interests, that helps me establish a link with
people.
Moreover, it helps me to know the issues concerning people and to find
solutions to their queries”. Tharoor is one of the very few politicians in
India who is actively involved in social networking, and has a fan following
numbering 642,525 on Twitter. “It was a Tuesday night dream that Shashi
Tharoor confirmed the meeting with the tweeters of Muscat”, remembers
Sangita Sridhar, a Muscat-based IT wizard who actively tweets.
“When I heard that Tharoor would be here in Muscat last Friday, I wanted to
confirm it from the horse’s mouth and also wanted to confirm if he would be
meeting with his ‘e-friends’ during his official visit in the Sultanate and
in no time, he replied he would have a chat with all of us”, said Sangita,
who is also a columnist for the Observer. She says his meeting with the net
users shows the power of electronic communication and modern IT
developments. |
