An important anniversary went unnoticed last week: India’s president completed two years on Facebook, on July 26.
It is tough being the Indian president. You might meet thousands of people in the course of your work, but it can be difficult to make friends. So a day after he assumed office, perhaps anticipating his impending seclusion, Pranab Mukherjee turned to Facebook.
More than seven lakh Indians have swarmed to the page since then, hoping that between laying foundation stones and handing out national awards, Mukherjee would have the time to check his notifications.
Initially, Mukherjee was all business.
But his office was not equipped to deal with the deluge of complaints. So a month later, he backtracked, requesting visitors not to post complaints, which many cheerfully ignored.
Some visitors clearly forgot their civics lessons. One asked him to instruct Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa to shut down alcohol vending booths that her government runs across the state, something slightly beyond the scope of his powers.
Some visitors worried about his health, others dispensed advice.
Home videos and other treats
The president is probably aware that however mundane his real life, his online persona must appear to be exciting. So his team releases a steady stream of photographs of him doing a variety of things – meeting army officials, inaugurating Parliament sessions, shaking hands with international leaders, playing with children and accepting and giving bouquets.
A turning point in his stint on Facebook perhaps came when he succumbed to home videos. Unfortunately, the government of India excels at making terrible ones. The Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan are beautiful but you wouldn't know it from the video on his page, a boring sequence of close-up shots of flowers.
The videos have livened up slightly over time, like this one in which he is seen inaugurating the presidential estate on July 25, all to a funky background score.
In December 2012, he seemed to have had a crisis about how to present himself. He changed his cover photo twice in two days, switching between an image of himself cutting a birthday cake and one of him patting a child in clothes decorated with sequins.
Facebook erroneously says that the office of the president was founded on October 2012, but that does nothing to diminish the patriotism of some visitors.
In a mark of his popularity, several Facebook pages claim to be the page of the president of India. They also have a fair number of followers, perhaps because they post content from the official page.
Some leaders only have pages created by others. Former Indian President Pratibha Patil, for instance, kept company with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his successor and son, Kim Jong Un in having a parody Tumblr page.
Mukherjee also created a Twitter account on July 1, but like all government accounts, it tweets only official updates and gives no hint about the president's personality.
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It is tough being the Indian president. You might meet thousands of people in the course of your work, but it can be difficult to make friends. So a day after he assumed office, perhaps anticipating his impending seclusion, Pranab Mukherjee turned to Facebook.
More than seven lakh Indians have swarmed to the page since then, hoping that between laying foundation stones and handing out national awards, Mukherjee would have the time to check his notifications.
Initially, Mukherjee was all business.
But his office was not equipped to deal with the deluge of complaints. So a month later, he backtracked, requesting visitors not to post complaints, which many cheerfully ignored.
Some visitors clearly forgot their civics lessons. One asked him to instruct Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa to shut down alcohol vending booths that her government runs across the state, something slightly beyond the scope of his powers.
Some visitors worried about his health, others dispensed advice.
Home videos and other treats
The president is probably aware that however mundane his real life, his online persona must appear to be exciting. So his team releases a steady stream of photographs of him doing a variety of things – meeting army officials, inaugurating Parliament sessions, shaking hands with international leaders, playing with children and accepting and giving bouquets.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi gives Pranab Mukherjee a bouquet.
Two days later, Mukherjee gives a bouquet to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A turning point in his stint on Facebook perhaps came when he succumbed to home videos. Unfortunately, the government of India excels at making terrible ones. The Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan are beautiful but you wouldn't know it from the video on his page, a boring sequence of close-up shots of flowers.
The videos have livened up slightly over time, like this one in which he is seen inaugurating the presidential estate on July 25, all to a funky background score.
In December 2012, he seemed to have had a crisis about how to present himself. He changed his cover photo twice in two days, switching between an image of himself cutting a birthday cake and one of him patting a child in clothes decorated with sequins.
Facebook erroneously says that the office of the president was founded on October 2012, but that does nothing to diminish the patriotism of some visitors.
In a mark of his popularity, several Facebook pages claim to be the page of the president of India. They also have a fair number of followers, perhaps because they post content from the official page.
Some leaders only have pages created by others. Former Indian President Pratibha Patil, for instance, kept company with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his successor and son, Kim Jong Un in having a parody Tumblr page.
Pratibha Patil comparing notes. Image from Pratibha Patil Doing Things.
Mukherjee also created a Twitter account on July 1, but like all government accounts, it tweets only official updates and gives no hint about the president's personality.