Twitter and Facebook are no longer the bastion of the socialbutterflies, nightlife addicts, armchair critics and others who need a place torant and vent. It’s now also becoming a platform for political statements andmovements, by politicians. It started with American politicians, moved toEurope and India soon jumped on the bandwagon with tech-savvy netas like ShashiTharoor, Omar Abdullah, Jairam Ramesh and others.
Goa, as always is a unique case. Its politicians, especiallythe congress, logged on during elections to virtually connect to a real erosionof its ground. But they soon signed out. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, VijaiSardesai, Mauvin Godinho, Nilesh Cabral and a few other Goan politicians ledwww and @ lives on Facebook and twitter. The idea of social networking went viralduring the elections, when veteran politicians like Rajendra Arlekar, the lateMatanhy Saldanha and the Dhavlikar brothers joining the bandwagon. However,post the March 2011 elections, their fervour died down.
The last post on CM Parrikar’s Facebook account was on March18, 2012. It reads: “It has been a hectic first week in office. I have tried toset the pace for the much desired good governance with some success. Now,concentrating on the budget scheduled on March 21 which will be a leap towards fulfillingthe promises made in the vision document.”
Except for Damu Naik who has a regular ‘thought for the day’but no followers and Vijai Sardessai who tweets and posts on Facebook on anhourly basis, all the others have deserted cyberspace. In the North MLAs, RohanKhaunte, Glenn Ticlo and Naresh Sawal have a picture on their Facebook pageswith other independents in a show of strength.
“I like tweeting on controversial issues concerning thegovernment and exposing and opposing the government of lies, failures andU-turns on,” said Sardesai adding, “I also get to notice suggestions Goans makeand enhance my knowledge on certain issues.”
Vijai is perplexed and wonders why Congress and BJP leadersin Goa stay away from people on social media. Other Indian politicians likeShashi Tharoor, Narendra Modi, Digvijay Singh, Sachin Pilot, Jairam Ramesh etcare very vocal on twitter and Facebook and invite public suggestions.
Mauvin has a timeline pointing out to his achievements andadding dates when he was a minister and when he resigned as the Deputy Speakerof the House on his Facebook page, which appears to have been frozen for quitea long time, with no new updates.
Matanhy Saldanha’s Facebook page is still active, keepinghis spirit and work alive. Longtime supporter Tomme Carvalho loves the factthat he can still connect to Matanhy, saying “It’s nice that Matanhy hadcreated a profile on Facebook. Today we can see some rare pictures of him andhis works in South India that the fishermen associations from there upload. Hispage kind of keeps him forever amongst us.”
