Modi trolled for ‘not practising what he preaches’

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who is considered a ‘master at branding and marketing himself’ and who is said to possess a legendary knack to spot a camera even from a distance and pose suitably – preaches against self-promotion, it should come as no surprise if his remarks evoke sarcastic response from Twitterati.

“These days, I see district magistrates posting photographs of themselves administering vaccines at vaccination camps on Facebook,” said the Prime Minister on Friday while addressing bureaucrats on Civil Services Day. Of course, a civil servant is expected to work incognito and there’s the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules which elaborates on what a bureaucrat can do or not do. But, in this era when social media can also play a big role in educating the masses, would it really be a bad thing if the bureaucrat posts photos of a vaccination camp? It may be debateable.

“Social media should be used to promote the government schemes, not oneself,” said Modi, who’s always on social media commenting on almost everything – of course, he may go mute on some issues such as the beef lynching at Alwar. Or, was he trying to say something else? With the PM’s photo being ubiquitous in almost every government commercial – in fact, he has even replaced Mahatma Gandhi in the Khadi Gram Udyog's calendar and stationary, was he indirectly saying that only he should be promoted, no one else?

Be that as it may be, it was Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s tweet that got the Twitterati taking swipes at the PM.

“Leading by example is clearly overrated,” tweeted Gandhi.

People tweeted on how the Prime Minister was fond of taking selfies and posting them on social media. Some of the tweets:

One tweet though raised a pertinent question on whether rules are meant for bureaucrats only, not politicians.