India
The Ministry of Railways has to work on its Twitter skills, here's why.
Updated : Aug 23, 2017, 05:28 PM IST
Twitter is a funny place and most of the time its more like Shakespearean 'Comedy of Error'.
Don't believe us? Well, for the uninitiated, Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu just took moral responsibility for recent train accidents and hinted towards what many think is his offer to resign.
So what has Prabhu's emotional 'blood and sweat' tweets to do with the Bard?
If you see all the tweets, five to be precise, you read about Prabhu's 'deep anguish' and pain over loss of lives in the train accidents.
In less than three years as Minister, I have devoted my blood and sweat for the betterment of the Railways (1/5)
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 23, 2017
Undr leadership of PM, tried 2 overcome decades of neglect thru systemic reforms in all areas leading 2 unprecedented investment& milestones
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 23, 2017
New India envisioned by PM deserves a Rlys which is efficient and modern. I promise that is the path, on which Rlys is progressing now (3/5)
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 23, 2017
I am extremely pained by the unfortunate accidents, injuries to passengers and loss of precious lives. It has caused me deep anguish (4/5)
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 23, 2017
Still can't connect the dots? Just check out tweet number 5,where he is talking about his meeting the Prime Minister.
I met the Hon'ble Prime Minister @narendramodi taking full moral responsibility. Hon’ble PM has asked me to wait. (5/5)
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 23, 2017
Yeah, so? Well, as it turned out, the Twitterati exploded with reactions with many saying that Prabhu must stay.
But one Prakash Choudhary had other important stuff to worry about. So, he decided to reply to Prabhu and complain about fare of a train running between Sealdah and Jainagar.
Now, here comes the 'Comedy of Error' bit. The Ministry of Railways, without much of thought, replied to the guy asking him to send his complain on an email id. They also asked him to send his ticket details and PNR number.
To us, this seemed like an ill-timed, badly-thought reply, which definitely looked bit off considering the gravity of the situation.
Is it a bot that does all the answering for Railways? We don't know that. But what we know for sure is that even thought the Railways has deleted its reply and that tweet, in a world of screen shots, a mistake lives forever.