The first tweet from President’s Kovind handle read: “Honoured to be sworn in as the 14th President of India; would be carrying out my responsibilities with all humility #PresidentKovind.”
With Ram Nath Kovind taking oath as the 14th President of India, the tweets from the official Twitter handle of his predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, have been archived under @POI13. The new Twitter handle, @rashtrapatibhvn, now has 3.25 million followers and so far has only followed Mukherjee’s account.
The first tweet from President’s Kovind handle read: “Honoured to be sworn in as the 14th President of India; would be carrying out my responsibilities with all humility #PresidentKovind.”
This is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities #PresidentKovind
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2017
On Monday, Pranab Mukherjee signed off from the account saying: “Thank you for your affection & support ; tomorrow when I engage with you it will not be as President but as a citizen #PresidentMukherjee”
It was not the first time the tweets of the head of a state have been archived. When President Barack Obama left office earlier this year, all his tweets were archived under @POTUS44.
However, when Narendra Modi succeeded Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister in 2014 there was controversy over the @PMOIndia handle. Singh’s staff immediately did not handover the keys to the account as there was confusion over what would happen to all the previous tweets. The handle name @PMOIndia also briefly became available to public. The issue was, however, resolved as Singh’s tweets were archived under @PMOIndiaArchive.
