Modi's PMO gets control of official Twitter handle

The Prime Minister’s Office under Narendra Modi on Tuesday took control of Twitter handle @PMOIndia that was relinquished by the previous dispensation under Manmohan Singh last week and had led to a controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party terming it ‘disgraceful and illegal’.

The first tweet from the PMO was about Prime Minister Modi offering tributes to Mahatma Gandhi with the photograph showing him paying homage to the Father of the Nation.

The next tweet invited its 1.27 million followers to the revamped official website of the PMO.

The twitter handle @PMOIndiaArchive, which was created by the previous PMO and to which all previous PMO tweets were shifted, could not be traced on Tuesday. ‘Sorry, that page does not exist!’ was the message shown by Twitter when the handle was searched.

However, a tweet from @PMOIndia said all tweets posted by Singh’s office have been archived at the PMO website. “All Tweets from this account up till May 26 2014 have been archived and can be seen here,” it said, giving the link.

BJP and Congress had sparred after the then communication adviser to Singh, Pankaj Pachauri, informed people through a series of tweets last week about the decision to free handle @PMOIndia and move to a new handle.

After much furore, a PMO statement had clarified the original handle, which was briefly captured by a squatter, had been secured by Twitter and will be handed over to the new dispensation. The Modi government has apparently also managed to get all the followers who were following the handle earlier but were moved to the new handle. 

Image: PM Narendra Modi offering tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his office. Photograph: @PMOIndia