Tweeting blues

Even by the usual standard of excuses advanced by politicians when they make a gaffe — “I was misquoted by the media” — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj blaming Twitter for her remarks being misunderstood rings hollow. After commenting on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in Parliament taking full responsibility for the decision to appoint P.J. Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Ms Swaraj tweeted: “I appreciate the statement of the Prime Minister owning responsibility for the appointment of CVC which has been quashed by Supreme Court”.

She then immediately followed it up with another tweet: “I think this is enough. Let matters rest at this and we move forward”.
This was clearly at odds with the line taken by Ms Swaraj’s party colleague Arun Jaitley who was going hammer and tongs at the Prime Minister for his lapse of judgment in the Thomas matter. When Ms Swaraj was asked why her party was speaking in forked tongue and whether there was a difference of opinion with Mr Jaitley, she denied it. She said everyone in the BJP was on the same page about the issue and the reason why she hadn’t demanded a statement from Dr Singh was because he had already said he would be making one. Besides, she said, there was “space constraint” on Twitter — the implication being that in 140 characters one couldn’t make a comprehensive statement; some details and nuances got left out.
Madame Swaraj protests too much. Everyone knows that on Twitter a point has to be made in 140 characters or less; that is one reason why people have taken to it. On Twitter, there is no room for long-winded pontification; you get your view across sharply and, moreover, in an instant. You may regret that impetuousness later (as Shashi Tharoor discovered), but if you want to say something quickly and in as few words as possible, there is nothing like tweeting.
Besides, and Ms Swaraj surely knows that, while there may be a limit to the number of characters, there is no limit to the number of times you can tweet. You can go on sending out tweets, each one making one point. She herself tweeted twice about the Prime Minister’s statement; there was nothing to stop her from sending out many more.
Clearly, her subsequent reaction was an afterthought once it became clear that senior BJP leaders were unhappy with her moderate stance on the subject. The party may have sensed an opportunity to embarrass Dr Singh and thus the government and the Congress; to have one of the very important leaders from within taking a contrasting tone could reduce the impact of that criticism. Now the focus has shifted to differences within the BJP, with the inevitable conclusion being drawn that Mr Jaitley and Ms Swaraj are at loggerheads and will do everything to trip the other.
The tussle between the GenNext BJP leaders — Mr Jaitley, Ms Swaraj, Narendra Modi and others — for supremacy is hardly breaking news. All of them are jostling for pole position so that when the next general elections roll out, they have a good chance of pressing their claim to lead the party and perhaps be projected as the natural prime ministerial candidate should the party do well. Ms Swaraj is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and has a slight edge over Mr Jaitley who heads the party in the Upper House. For one thing, she has proved she can win elections, which he has not.
Lately she has also adopted a very measured approach to issues and to the government, perhaps calculating that shrillness will not pay. Gone are the earlier dramatic gestures and hectoring, such as threatening to shave her head if Congress president Sonia Gandhi became the Prime Minister. Now, it is about reconciliation and civil relations with all, which distinguishes her from her party colleagues. Naturally, the hardliners in the BJP cannot tolerate it.
Going on Twitter was part of the makeover plan. It shows her to be a modern, forward-looking politician connected with the younger generation. And frankly the more politicians who go on to the social media the better it will be; it helps them be in direct touch with their constituents and is good for the populace who can get to know what their leaders are thinking. Ms Swaraj was definitely on the right track.
But old habits die hard. Instead of standing by what she said — and it is there for all to see — she chose to blame the medium, just like her compatriots have blamed print and television journalists for generations. That is a mistake. Social media users are a bit more difficult to con, because they understand what the technology is all about and how it can be used. Ms Swaraj wanted to have it both ways and it has rebounded on her. It shows that she had not fully grasped that Twitter can be a double-edged sword which encourages more transparency. So don’t be surprised if she soon goes off Twitter; if she continues, it will be only to tweet boring, noncommittal comments. Indian politicians are not yet fully ready to move with the times.

The writer is a senior journalist and commentator on current affairs based in Mumbai