Congress leader and Waynad PM Rahul Gandhi is ‘dismayed’ at White House unfollowing twitter handles of President of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and PMO India. Expressing his feelings on microblogging site Twitter, the Congress leader requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to take note of it.
I’m dismayed by the “unfollowing” of our President & PM by the White House. I urge the Ministry of External Affairs to take note.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 29, 2020
“I’m dismayed by the “unfollowing” of our President & PM by the White House. I urge the Ministry of External Affairs to take note,” Gandhi tweeted.
The White House, which is the official residence of Trump, used to follow both the personal account (@narendramodi) of PM Modi and his official Twitter handle @PMOIndia.
But the White House unfollowed both the accounts of PM Narendra Modi on Twitter on the night of Tuesday.
So, the White House followed these Twitter handles only for three weeks. At one point in time, all non-US Twitter handles followed by the White House – which has around 21.5 million followers – were only Indian.
But now the White House is following just 13 Twitter accounts.
So the other accounts that have been unfollowed by the White House are US Embassy in New Delhi and Indian Embassy in Washington.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks on India’s decision to ban exports of hydroxychloroquine – anti-malarial drug that has shown to have shortened the time to clinical recovery of coronavirus patients.
“I would be surprised if that were his (Modi’s) decision. He’d have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we’d appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn’t allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn’t there be?” Trump had said.
This sparked controversy and soon export of the drug was okayed. Trump later thanked PM Modi for partially lifting the ban.
