New Delhi: Toeing the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar would be sharing his version of 'Mann Ki Baat' under a new initiative launched from Friday under the title 'AsktheSpokesperson'. "This programme will be on Twitter....and is aimed at bringing awareness and understanding of foreign policy issues to the general public....I will try to give them a reply which is very simple and perhaps try to connect to the bilateral relationships at the level of the common people," Raveesh Kumar told reporters shortly before the programme was kicked off.
The outreach programme -an audio-visual one - that commenced on Friday afternoon may be organised once in two months, he said. "The Ministry has launched the new initiative titled "#AsktheSpokesperson” on Twitter with an objective to bring better awareness and understanding of foreign policy issues to general public. Under this initiative, the Ministry will use the social media platforms for inviting questions from public on India’s foreign policy and the selected questions are responded to by the Official Spokesperson live on social media," he said. Several journalists at the media briefing wondered whether it will be like the much popular 'Mann Ki Baat' - the monthly radio broadcast of the Prime Minister Modi.
The inaugural session of #AsktheSpokesperson initiative was held at 1700 hrs on October 27, 2017 on the Ministry’s official Twitter handle @MEAIndia. Out of numerous queries received, the Spokesperson responded to selected question, live through periscope. This initiative is a part of the Ministry’s policy to "pro-actively use" social media and digital technology to engage constantly with a general public on issues related with the activities of the Ministry. The Ministry has also launched its LinkedIn profile with the objective to expand its engagements in the social space focusing on professionals and building network and to take digital activations to an altogether different set of audience.
In his opening remarks at Friday's programme, Kumar said, "this programme is for a "larger audience" which are "not exposed to complicated terminologies of foreign affairs". To a question on Indo-Russia relations, Kumar explained that it is "very close and time tested". "In fact India established its relationship with Russia even before Independence and both the countries will be celebrating 70 years of the diplomatic relations this year," he said. (UNI)