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| Nirmala Sitharaman posted eight tweets saying the account had been managed by an outside agency and was not authorised. She also said the employee had left job after the misdeed. |
July 28, 2016, NewsCrunch
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stepped in to limit damage after an official Twitter handle of Startup India re-tweeted an offensive post for a purge of pro-Pakistan "presstitutes".
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@Startupindia had on Tuesday night re-tweeted a post that read: "Indian Army should be freed for 1 day to take care of these pro-Pak presstitutes. To make these pro-Pak doves silent for eternity. RT (retweet) if agree."
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| @Startupindia had on Tuesday night re-tweeted a post that read: "Indian Army should be freed for 1 day to take care of these pro-Pak presstitutes. To make these pro-Pak doves silent for eternity. RT (retweet) if agree." |
Startup India had re-tweeted another post, which had attacked Barkha Dutt though without naming her.
Many Modi ministers have had a testy relationship with media. The word 'presstitute' was coined by MoS V K Singh, and former HRD minister Smriti Irani was known for her frequent fracas with journalists.
After the Startup India re-tweets threatened to create a huge controversy, junior Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stepped in to control damage.
She posted eight tweets saying the account had been managed by an outside agency and was not authorised. She also said the employee had left job after the misdeed.
The Commerce ministry had earlier deleted the tweets and apologised describing them as unwarranted & irrelevant.
1/n- This is with reference to two unwarranted & irrelevant re-tweets done in the midnight by @startupindia handle ....... @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
2/n- Moment it was noticed that @startupindia had done 2 unauthorized retweets. Right then at midnight the retweets were undone @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
3/n- The unauthorized re tweets were done by one employee of the agency duly hired by @DIPPGOI through a tendering process @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
4/n-Person assigned by the agency for this particular job is not decided by the dept & is the sole prerogative of the agency @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
5/n-The usual practice of getting the tweets/retweets approved from the department was not followed in this case. @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
6/n It was completely wrong & unacceptable for the employee to have retweeted on a matter completely unrelated to StartupIndia @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
7/n- The concerned employee has already put in his papers & will have nothing to do with @startupindia from hereon. @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016
8/8- We hope that inadvertent misdeeds of 1 person outside our dept will not undermine the true spirit of Team Startup India @nsitharaman— CIM India@GOI (@CimGOI) July 27, 2016