Social Media for Indian Politicians : Even Regional Parties also joined the fray

 There is a sudden phenomenon of political marketing taking the social media route. According to a report by the financial newspaper Mint, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government believes it has found ways to get better e-Press—by owning the Press—and understand the dynamics of social media, by creating a strategic media think tank.

The UPA is considering launching an online newspaper that will highlight its achievements, according to a cabinet note on a proposed new media wing that is to be created in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting .

Many social media activities have been activated already by the governing ministry. For instance, post the announcement of financial budget, Finance Minister Chidambaram organised a Google Hangout for a mass discussion. As part of its ongoing effort to generate a public debate on 12th five-year plan through various social media platforms, the Planning Commission will organise a 32-hour ‘hackathon’ in association with 12 major universities of the country on April 6 and 7.
The event which would be a first-of-kind initiative by any government body will involve students, youngsters and others, in preparing infotainment, story boards, mobile apps, etc. on the various initiatives mentioned in the plan.

The Commission has also started making extensive use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, slide share Flickr and Google Plus for this purpose. The Commission’s Twitter account was activated few days ago and also its Facebook page.

Another dimension has recently been added in social media in political arena, now many regional political parties have joined social media club. Specially in Maharashtra parties have realised that more than 50 percent voters  are below 35 years and almost 40 percent of that lot are in Urban area. This has prompted regional parties like MNS, Shiv Sena, NCP have started their own portals and started creating their Facebook  and Twitter accounts. And good news is that response is encouraging. MNS's Raj Thakre's tour programmes and important announcements are posted on parties Facebook page. Sharad Pawar's NCP  has recently launched its Facebook page. Traditionally NCP's major voter base is in rural area but the party has started posting highlights of activities including a campaign for district council elections and press releases.
Looking at the trend set by small and regional parties in Maharasthra , Congress  is also pulling up its socks. MPCC president and spokes person's accounts have been launched on Facebook.

The fact is that people react very quickly on whatever appear on social media space. This has created tough time for politicians who came of this media initially.Social media has become the breeding ground for controversies . Some of the biggest social media controversies that have happened in India over last five years have mostly involved politicians. Author, Politician and an avid Tweeter, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is now the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, is one of the best examples of an Indian politician who social media controversies have entangled.

In September 2009, Tharoor triggered a controversy with his ‘cattle class’ tweet. His tweet that he would travel ‘cattle class in solidarity with all our holy cows’ against the backdrop of an austerity drive in the government kicked-off a major row and Tharoor faced criticism. He had apologised then, saying he meant no disrespect to economy travellers but “only to airlines for herding us in like cattle”.

After this too, Tharoor was spotted to have said the wrong things on Twitter. Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh are other senior politicians who have got into trouble for making statements that turned into social media controversiesHas .

So the social media space will be more interesting to watch !