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Posts Tagged ‘Shashi Tharoor’
Travelling Tharoor missed all the brouhaha!
December 29, 2009 | 
Author Shashi Tharoor tweeted again and explained why he was quiet while the visa controversy was going on everywhere on TV and the WWW. His boss Minister of External Affairs, S M Krishna went on to say that such matters should not be discussed on a public forum like Twitter. Tharoor however tweeted so this morning…
Was travelling outof range& missed brouhaha.Now that EAM Krishnaji,whom I respect,has spoken,I hv nothing 2add.Will discuss visa issue w him.
But thanks for all the kind words over the last 24hrs. Appreciate the support!
Support he had from everywhere but the politicians of both the ruling Congress party and the opposition. Debates went on on all major news channels on Tharoor’s tweets. People were amused and felt he has every right to tweet what he feels like while his party were left explaining. The difference of opinion between the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) and the Home Ministry was discussed at length.
For the rest of the country it was a great day – a minister telling them things like it is. There’s hope for politicians in India after all, we may yet have a new breed of leaders who dare to be different.
Posted in Celebrity Reputation, Journalists and Reporters, Online PR, politicians, PR / Public Relations | 
Tags: MEA, politicians, Shashi Tharoor, twitter | 
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Shashi Tharoor- badly in need of online reputation management!
Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs is no stranger to social networking and is the highest followed person in India on Twitter. Tharoor in fact popularised Twitter in India to a great extent with his now controversial Tweets and was even named “Twitteroor” for his political gaffes as far as his political party’s stances were concerned.
The minister is intellectual, tech-savvy and popular with the masses and has 537,478 followers on Twitter when this post was written. The problem with Tharoor is that his Tweets are a source of both admiration and political uproar at the same time. Even as he endears himself to the youngsters, the geriatric members of his often sycophantic Congress party look at him as an up-start of sorts.
That Tharoor was in the initial stages a close rival to the UN Secretary-General post of Ban Ki Moon and that he has numerous books to his name all accord him a celebrity status. What I like about him the most is his constant attempts at making his countrymen laugh at themselves. Here he is back in the news for tweeting against his own government’s tightening of tourist visas to India. This is what he tweeted -
Dilemma of our age: tough visa restrictions in hope of btr (better) security or openness & (and) liberality to encourage tourism & goodwill? I prefer latter.
When asked about the economy class of Air India he famously tweeted -
“absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!”
The slang was lost on most people in India and when he added the holy cows all hell broke loose.
That he has huge plans for his country and is not afraid to speak his mind and even against his own government makes him stand apart. But then these days how the mighty fall ( Tiger Woods) and before you know it, courting controversy can finally catch up. The minister sure needs some expert reputation management for continuing his work well and to be in the good books of the old war horses in the Congress party.
Being a busy man he needs the services of an army of experts to help him with online reputation management and being a celebrity and a politician the need only magnifies manifold.
Shashi Tharoor’s Controversial Pandora and his Reputation
Regardless of his impeccable credentials as a diplomat and him being the emerging face of Indian politics, Shashi Tharoor was recently made to resign from his post of Minister of State for External Affairs, on the grounds of illegal use of his office. Being a writer, sportsman, politician and above all a top UN diplomat, Tharoor was in a soup with nothing much to prove his part clean.
Ousted by Congress, Tharoor might not have ever dreamt of such an exit with allegation from all sides including no support for him from his very own ruling party. Well, seems Tharoor failed to score when it came to build a good PR internally in his party, though he enjoys over 700,000 followers in Twitter. Alleged for being involved in the auction of the Kochi team in the IPL, Tharoor never thought in his scariest dream, that his love for Kerala will turn up to him in such a fashion.
Being an ardent twitterer Tharoor’s (@ShashiTharoor) message have irked his party for a couple of occasions in the past, he was the first minister who came out open via Twitter and tried to connect with the masses. If Mr Tharoor would have used his social networking and twittering skills which is something new to Indian politics, to clear the air about the alleged scandal, then he would not have landed in such a mess, and the damage would have been minimized. Tharoor’s flamboyant persona and cool attitude had enough supporters on twitter, but being a politician Tharoor needed to distinguish his private and public life, before flaunting his girlfriend openly. All this has raised several repercussion, with the big question, whether Shashi Tharoor is a mis-fit in the Indian political scenario?
Whatever be the case, we at Reputation Management For.com strongly feel that Shashi Tharoor needs to make sure that he comes up strong over all these controversies and restructure his political reputation. He needs a well defined PR strategy in parliament to successfully make up for his lost glory.