Digital India and the political class
A politician may not have to be Net and social media savvy him/herself to be able to provide leadership in moving governance online, or planning for increased Internet penetration for his constituency. But if personal use of digital communication tools is a measure of their conviction, many leading politicians today, including several cabinet ministers, would fall short.
The focus on the use of digital communication by the political class has come about because of the prime minister’s high profile advocacy of the Internet and social media and his reliance on Twitter to communicate with citizens. If we were to begin by looking at Twitter, he leads the pack among his cabinet ministers.
Those on twitter in order of activeness are:
|
|
|
Twitter Handle |
No of tweets (till Oct 1, ’15) |
Ministry |
|
1 |
Narendra Modi |
@narendramodi |
9,491 |
PM |
|
2 |
Smriti Irani |
@smritiirani |
7,411 |
HRD |
|
3 |
Kalraj Mishra |
@KalrajMishra |
4,167 |
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
|
4 |
Sushma Swaraj |
@SushmaSwaraj |
3,270 |
External Affairs |
|
5 |
Ravi Shankar Prasad |
@rsprasad |
1,841 |
Communications and Information Technology |
|
6 |
Suresh Prabhu |
@sureshpprabhu |
1,752 |
Railways |
|
7 |
Rajnath Singh |
@BJPRajnathSingh |
1,533 |
Home Affairs |
|
8 |
Ananth Kumar |
@AnanthKumar_BJP |
1,224 |
Chemicals and Fertilizers |
|
9 |
JP Nadda |
@JPNadda |
1,195 |
Health and Family Welfare |
|
10 |
Harsh Vardhan |
@drharshvardhan |
1,007 |
Science and Technology |
|
11 |
Arun Jaitley |
@arunjaitley |
980 |
Finance, Corporate Affairs, I & B |
|
12 |
M Venkaiah Naidu |
@MVenkaiahNaidu |
904 |
Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs |
|
13 |
Nitin Gadkari |
@nitin_gadkari |
724 |
Road Transport and Highways Shipping |
|
14 |
Maneka Gandhi |
@Manekagandhibjp |
332 |
Women and Child Development |
|
15 |
Manohar Parikar |
@manoharparrikar |
122 |
Defence |
Most active on twitter. Clockwise: Narendra Modi, Smriti Irani, Kalraj Mishra, Sushma Swaraj
Political leaders who belong to other parties include champion tweeters who far outnumber those in government.
Top 5 Tweeters among politicians
|
Politician |
Twitter Handle |
No of tweets |
|
Derek O’Brien |
@quizderek |
30.2K |
|
Shashi Tharoor |
@ShashiTharoor |
28.7K |
|
Narendra Modi |
@narendramodi |
9,491 |
|
Arvind Kejriwal |
@ArvindKejriwal |
8,950 |
|
Smriti Irani |
@smritiirani |
7,411 |
We took three indicators of personal use of the Web and social media: Twitter accounts,websites and blogs. The only cabinet member to have all three, apart from his official website and official twitter account, is the prime minister.
Those who had none of these were the following nine:
No website, no twitter, and no blog
|
|
Cabinet Ministers |
Ministry |
|
1 |
Uma Bharti |
Water Resources |
|
2 |
Najma A Heptulla |
Minority Affairs |
|
3 |
Ram Vlas Paswan |
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution |
|
4 |
Ashok Gajapathi Raju |
Civil Aviation |
|
5 |
Anant Geete |
Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises |
|
6 |
Narendra Singh Tomar |
Mines, Steel |
|
7 |
Ch. Birender Singh |
Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation |
|
8 |
Radha Mohan Singh |
Agriculture |
|
9 |
Thawar Chand Gehlot |
Social Justice and Empowerment |
Some ministers have both websites and Twitter accounts:
Website and Twitter
|
Ravi Shankar Prasad |
@rsprasad
|
|
|
Rajnath Singh |
@BJPRajnathSingh |
|
|
M Venkaiah Naidu |
@MVenkaiahNaidu |
|
|
Nitin Gadkari |
@nitin_gadkari |
|
|
Suresh Prabhu |
@sureshpprabhu |
|
|
Kalraj Mishra |
@KalrajMishra |
|
|
Ananth Kumar |
@AnanthKumar_BJP |
|
|
Harsh Vardhan |
@drharshvardhan |
Some have only websites, and out of 26 cabinet ministers only one has a blog. That is Arun Jaitley but he penned his thoughts for a very short period.(5 August 2014 to 14 January 2015)
Ministers with personal websites
|
Harsimrat Kaur Badal |
No verified Twitter account |
No blog |
|
|
Jual Oram |
No verified account |
No blog |
|
|
Sadananda Gowda |
No Verified account |
No Blog |
Those without websites or blogs.
|
1 |
Smriti Irani |
|
2 |
Sushma Swaraj |
|
3 |
Manohar Parikar |
|
4 |
Uma Bharti |
|
5 |
Najma A Heptulla |
|
6 |
Ram Vilas Paswan |
|
7 |
Maneka Gandhi |
|
8 |
JP Nadda |
|
9 |
Ashok Gajapathi Raju |
|
10 |
Anant Geete |
|
11 |
Narendra Singh Tomar |
|
12 |
Ch. Birender Singh |
|
13 |
Radha Mohan Singh |
Those not on Twitter are:
No Twitter Account
|
1 |
Sadananda Gowda |
|
2 |
Uma Bharti |
|
3 |
Najma A Heptulla |
|
4 |
Ram Vilas Paswan |
|
5 |
Ashok Gajapathi Raju |
|
6 |
Anant Geete |
|
7 |
Harsimrat Kaur Badal |
|
8 |
Narendra Singh Tomar |
|
9 |
Ch. Birender Singh |
|
10 |
Jual Oram |
|
11 |
Radha Mohan Singh |
|
12 |
Thawar Chand Gehlot |
And finally what is the picture with regard to Congress politicians? Rahul Gandhi himself doesn’t have anything, the Twitter account in his name is handled by his office.
Congress politicians
|
Politician |
Website |
|
Blog |
|
Rahul Gandhi |
No Website |
@OfficeOfRG, Official Twitter Account |
No Blog |
|
Sonia Gandhi |
No Account |
No Blog |
|
|
Shashi Tharoor |
@ShashiTharoor
|
No Blog
|
|
|
Digvijay Singh |
@digvijaya_28 |
||
|
Rajiv Shukla |
@ShuklaRajiv |