International women’s day: PM gives up his social media accounts for ‘Women Achievers’

The International Women’s Day is a day for all of us to celebrate women achievers in and around us who touch our lives in small or big ways. The PM who always consider women as one of the strongest back bone of our country’s economy takes great interest to celebrate this day. On the morning of this special day, the PM tweets that he would log out of all his social media accounts and that ‘seven women achievers’ would get the privilege of handling them. These women will be allowed to “share their life’s journeys” on this special day through these platforms.

“Greetings on International Women’s Day! We salute the spirit and accomplishments of our Nari Shakti. As I’d said a few days ago, I’m signing off. Through the day, seven women achievers will share their life journeys and perhaps interact with you through my social media accounts,” PM Modi tweeted.

“India has outstanding women achievers in all parts of the nation. These women have done great work in a wide range of sectors. Their struggles and aspirations motivate millions. Let us keep celebrating the achievements of such women and learning from them,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

The first woman to tweet from the PM’s Twitter handle was Sneha Mohandoss, founder of Food Bank India. “You heard of food for thought. Now, it is time for action and a better future for our poor. Hello, I am @snehamohandoss Inspired by my mother, who instilled the habit of feeding the homeless, I started this initiative called Food bank India,” Ms Mohandoss tweeted, along with a video introducing herself.

On Monday, PM Modi had left social media users wondering as he tweeted that he was thinking of giving up his Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts in a week. He did not elaborate on the reason behind doing so.

A day later, he cleared for everyone on his mystery announcement: on International Women’s Day, he would hand over his social media accounts “to women whose life, work inspire us”.

PM Modi is one of the most followed world leaders on social media with 53.3 million followers on Twitter, 44 million on Facebook, 35.2 million on Instagram and 4.5 million on YouTube.

The announcement on Monday that he would unplug himself from social media had led to much anguish among his supporters and in no time, the hashtag “#NoSir” became a top Twitter trend.

PM’s post was retweeted 49,000 times and got over 172,800 “likes” in just 24 hours. It also triggered intense speculation about the reason in the backdrop of the intense political storm over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA and the violence in Delhi that left 53 dead and hundreds injured.