Twitter Minister resigns !!

Shashi Tharoor a.k.a Twitter Minister.. (as some of the sections in media calls him) resigned from his ministry yesterday.

To be precise, he was the "Minister of State for External Affairs" and not the Minister or Marketing professional for a website which acts as a micro-blog. But the New-Yorker kinda minister was an active Twitter-er/Tweeter so much so that sometimes he was alleged of letting his views on Government's decision out in the public fora prior to even consulting the top bosses !!

After a successful career at the United Nations, Mr. Tharoor jumped into politics and contested on Congress's ticket in the General Elections of 2009. He represents Kochi (Kerala State) constituency at the Lok-Sabha (Parliament).
Being a first-timer in the politics and still getting a junior ministry in the cabinet surely indicates his good relations with the residents of 10 Janpath.

But during his short stint, Mr. Tharoor many times forgot that he is a minister now and hence should think before speaking up !! As the saying goes: "With great power comes great responsibility", but it seems the twitter minister forgot this very saying whenever he tweeted.

First during the dramaybaazi of "austerity drive" whereby every minister was supposed to cut costs on the indecent expenses and thus follow the then need of the hour (as inflation was going up and the recession had engulfed most part of the world). Mr. Tharoor at that very moment tweeted travelling in the normal class as "travelling in the cattle-class" thus thereby equating the great Indian middle-class as the "cattle-class" which seemed to be a statement against the principles of "Socialism" enshrined in the Indian Constitution. This drew a lot of criticism for the central government and the various spokespersons of the Congress party started hiding their faces from the media during those days, all because the twitter minister a.k.a. Shashi Tharoor had tweeted this thing on his Twitter account.

Secondly, during the Prime Minister's recent visit to the Saudi Arabia, the blabbermouth Twitter Minister, tweeted on his twitter account that he would appreciate Saudi Arabia acting as an "Interlocutor" between India and Pakistan over Kashmir thereby again putting the government at the backfoot. After getting harsh opposition from within the government and surely from the opposition Mr. Tharoor said that i've used the term "Interlocutor" and not the "Mediator" !!
This time again he was saved by a whisker just because the dictionary meaning of both the words is a bit different. :)

Finally, Mr. Tharoor wanted to do something for his constituency, but the poor chap followed a wrong way. It is felt that he used his power to influence the IPL team selection panel in providing a new team for the Kochi. After winning the bid for IPL-Kochi team, it is alleged that Mr. Tharoor made his lady friend (some media sources term this friendship as affair..which is probably true too) Ms. Sunanda Pushkar obtain "sweat equity" in the Rendezvous Sports upto the tune of about Rs. 70 crores !! and that too without investing a single penny (read: sweat).

When the IPL commissioner Mr. Lalit Modi asked the Team Kochi owners i.e. Rendezvous Sports to reveal the shareholders name.. it is stated by Mr. Modi that Mr. Tharoor prevented him to dig deep into the shareholding pattern of Rendezvous Sports. This clearly showed that Mr. Tharoor had some financial interests in the IPL Kochi team or to say he was a "Benaami" shareholder of the Kochi franchisee.

This was a very serious allegation to which the opposition stuck. Even Mr. Tharoor was not able to clarify his stance this time around as their was no "dictionary" to change the meaning of his intentions !! :)
Even the Congress party after seeing their popularity dip had to change their stance and had to make a hard decision for them and hence sack the twitter minister a.k.a. Mr. Shashi Tharoor.

As per my opinion I was happy when for the first time I heard the news that Mr. Tharoor has become a cabinet minister. I was happy because as most of the young generation of our country, even i wanted a good, young, energetic and a presentable leader representing my country. Even 'am not averse to Ministers using technology and latest social networking sites to reach the masses.
But the thing, which went against in Mr. Tharoor's case is his "Tweeting without Thinking" approach.