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Sunday, December 13, 2009 (13:47:07) |
| Tags : India, ministers, social networking website, Twitter |
Now, international diplomacy on Twitter |
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| New Delhi: A tripartite meeting on Twitter? That's what happened among the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt and India.
Bahrain's Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa sat with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, at a cafe in Bahrain last week and 'tweeted' with Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
"My friend Ahmad (the Egyptian minister) and I had dinner at cafe Italia. lovely atmosphere and lively talk. we tweeted with 'at'ShashiTharoor while there," Al Khalifa posted on Twitter.
A day later, Tharoor tweeted back, "Trilateral meeting"!
In one of Al Khalifa's early posts, he joked he had joined the social networking tool inspired by Tharoor. "you converted me to twitter..but i remain a good Muslim," he tweeted. Since then, the Bahraini foreign minister has tweeted a lot about India and bilateral ties.
"Every Bahraini has some kind of a connect to India. be it travel, friendship, education, or maybe love of bollywood and bhangra beats," he said in an India-related post.
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High-flying PM touches base with all
It was a hectic three-day trip to Moscow, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had no time to even talk to the Indian journalists who accompanied him. On his way back, however, he made sure he disappointed no one.
Manmohan Singh came out of his special chamber on board Air India One and met all the people who were with him in Moscow. Clad in shirt, trousers and a waistcoat, he met not only mediapersons one by one but also officials - a gesture that was praised by everyone.
"How humble he is," said an official, feeling rather overwhelmed after shaking hands with the prime minister.
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Playing it by the day
Some Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs want the winter session of parliament cut short by a day, but it's certainly not theirs for the asking.
The session is scheduled to end Dec 21, a Monday. And the members want it to end Dec 18, a Friday. That's because attendance in parliament is generally thin on Friday afternoons as members start leaving for their constituencies.
Apparently wanting to avoid a trip back to Delhi for just one day, some Congress and BJP MPs have informally conveyed the idea to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. But the government has so far avoided making a commitment.
And even if the government does consider it, the Left parties - which are vehemently opposing early curtailment of the session, even by a day - could play the proverbial thorn in the flesh.
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Chief guest doesn't have much to say
It was a perfect evening for a book launch, with an impressive list of panelists and high tea at a five-star hotel. Only the author was left red-faced by the chief guest, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja, who didn't have much to say!
Walking up to the microphone after launching ITDC chairman and managing director Parvez Dewan's book formally, Selja said: "Generally, authors send a copy of the book to the chief guest who is going to launch it...but Parvez seems to have forgotten to send me one. So I don't have much to say about the book, although I wish I could."
An embarrased Dewan, trying to do some damage control, quickly got a copy of the book, "Tibet: 50 years after", and signed it along with his co-author Siddharth Srivastava before presenting it to Selja. She just smiled!
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Birds of a feather
They go back a long way - from the days of student politics in Kerala to being colleagues in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. So it was hardly a surprise when Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Defence Minister A.K. Antony decided to beat the winter blues in the capital in much the same way.
At a party thrown at Congress party MP P.C. Chacko's residence, both of them turned up in caps. While Ravi opted for a Kashmiri woollen cap, Antony wore the Himachali kind.
"Ravi is in Kashmiri style!" Antony commented. As Ravi acknowledged it with a smile, Congress MP K. Sudhakaran quipped: "You are in Himachali get-up!" (IANS) |
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