Click to play videoMinister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in an exclusive interview to Network18 has reacted on some of the recent controversies he has been dogged with. He spoke especially about his extensive use of Twitter in discussing policy matters.
CNN-IBN: If you look at some of the controversies, some of it has to do with language?
Shashi Tharoor: Yes.
CNN-IBN: Cattle class, interlocutor. Has there been a problem understanding the vocabulary of Indian politics?
Shashi Tharoor: Possibly. I am not denying that. There are elements in our society who rather revel in bringing down people as well. I have been brought down, but I am not going to make any bones about it.
CNN-IBN: But the twitter thing annoys a lot of people?
Shashi Tharoor: The truth is when any thought you express can reach out to almost seven lakh people, wouldn't any politician kill for an audience like that?
CNN-IBN: What about the suggestion that you shouldn't be tweeting about the government policy as you did with the visas?
Shashi Tharoor: There I disagree because everybody else is doing it. Even the Prime Minister of Australia tweets. The Foreign Secretary of Britain David Miliband tweets and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweets. In fact, when she was in Delhi there were a dozen tweets a day about all her activities and her meetings.
CNN-IBN: Is that why you regret the visa tweet?
Shashi Tharoor: I only regret the visa tweet because of the nature of our political culture, which is not one sadly. But public discussion of issues requiring discussions is particularly welcomed. I would love to change that culture but I can't as an individual start setting the pace. I don't have the rank or the authority or the background to be doing that. I think I should have been, in that sense, a little more restrained about putting it on twitter or indeed even saying it on TV at that point.
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