Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the Instagram bandwagon of high-profile world leaders on Wednesday while in Myanmar for the ASEAN summit.
By Abhimanyu Chakravorty
An elated PM Modi wrote on his post, “Hello World! Great being on Instagram. My first photo…this one from the ASEAN Summit.” Within a span of three hours PM Modi got 42,093 followers and still counting.
Realising the power of social media outlets, Obama and Xi have also been using Instagram with a massive following of 3,675, 202, and 2,61,570 respectively. Among ASEAN member countries, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has 97,431 followers, Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong has 46,493 followers, and Malaysian PM Najib Razak with 9600 followers.
Instagram is a popular social media platform that lets people share their life with friends and family through a series of pictures on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. It allows people to snap a photo using a mobile phone and gives the option of adding a variety of vintage looking photo filters. Launched in October 2010, this application now has an active user base of over 100 million worldwide.
Modi is in Myanmar on a 11-day foreign tour with his first stop at the capital Nay Pyi Taw, where he held bilateral talks with President U Thein Sein. He has made a strong push for improving regional connectivity as a booster to trade and increased people-to-people cultural contact. This three-nation foreign tour will also take him to Australia and Fiji.
PM Modi is one of the most tech-savvy politicians in the country when it comes to social media. He also happens to be one of the most followed world leader on a variety of social media platforms. In fact, right after the government formation he suggested his party members actively join Twitter, YouTube, Facebook to directly communicate with the people.