Last week Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi created a tsunami in the digital world. The CM became the third politician in the world to communicate with people after Barak Obama and Julia Gillard.
In an unprecedented move in the history of Indian politics, Narendra Modi reached out to the citizens of India on 31st August, 2012 through Google+ Hangout. The theme of the session was ’Strong and Glorious India Long Cherished by Swami Vivekananda’.
We have got more to the original story. Google India in its latest blogpost has shared some ground breaking numbers of the hangout. The live broadcast that happened on the CM’s Youtube Channel and on his Google+ page for two hours was watched by close to 82,000 people from 116 countries. Additionally, there were millions who watched the live program across other media platforms.
The move was a pathbreaking one, especially at a time when we have a Government that has failed to understand social media. However, the Google+ act won’t make the CM our new PM but at least he has shown the intent to reach out to the people. Every political party in India has the money and team to go social but the intent is missing.
Although Narendra Modi has been an active politician on social media since a long time, the hangout has been attributed as a political stunt. As per the discussions going on in news rooms, we might have an early election and this time social media will play a big role. We are already seeing political wars being fought on Twitter these days. So Narendra Modi’s move to connect with the masses is a well thought act.
But it remains to be watched whether the G+ hangout and the growing social clout of Narendra Modi be enough for GOI to roll up their sleeves or not.