The Lucknow teen who became 'India's PM' on Twitter

For 30 minutes, a teenager from Lucknow became the ‘prime minister’ of India, at least on Twitter!

Qaiser Ali received 30 minutes of fame on Tuesday when he took over the @PMO handle on Twitter. Speaking about the incident, Ali said that he was busy surfing on Twitter when his hunt took him to the prime minister’s account, which was free and saved it instantly for himself. “I saved it immediately and suddenly I found myself with the @PMOIndia handle,” said Ali.

As soon as he tweeted ‘I have taken @PMOIndia', he was flooded with tweets from all over. “For nearly 30 minutes, I felt on top of the world, but soon I realised that it was wrong of me to use an important account. Therefore, I sent out an apology clarifying that I used the account only because it was vacant,” the teenager added.

Qaiser, who passed out of City Montessori School in 2013, is an aspiring engineering student. His interest in computer applications has also led him to come up with his own version of the Facebook and hopes to become a successful entrepreneur.   

When asked how he landed up registering on the prime minister’s account, he said, “Perhaps, the account was vacant because the outgoing United Progressive Alliance officials handling the account left it unattended and free to use."

The officials preferred to archive the earlier tweets under a new account called @PMOIndiaarchive, causing a political row between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

It is reported that Pankaj Pachauri, who was handling the @PMOIndia account during the Manmohan Singh regime, exited the previous handle without informing the company, which left the account open to all.

Ali made it a point to issue an apology to both, Pachauri as well as the new government, saying, “I hope I do not have to face the music for this inadvertent venture.”

Image: Qaiser Ali apologised for taking over the @PMOIndia Twitter handle. Photograph: Qaiser Ali's Twitter page.