Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Blocked By The Indian Army

Strange are the way of Indian establishments.

While on Twitter just now, realised that I am no longer following the Indian Army. Assuming I'd accidently "unfollowed" it, though I had no recollection of how it could have happened, I clicked on its 'Follow' button. Imagine the surprise when I was greeted with the following message.

Indian-Army-Twitter-Block-JPG

It is most likely to be related to this post, where I highlighted how it had used a picture from the pakistan Army as the header image of its account, given that prior to this I had no other interactions with its account other than periodically re-tweeting its tweets. Even in this case I brought it to the attention of the Army's account only twice, with a gap of more than 14 hours between each tweet after noticing that the earlier tweet did not result in correction. So, one also can not be accused to "trolling" the account that would have warranted a block. Upon discovering that the Army had corrected its mistake, it was duly acknowledged in another post.

One would have assumed my actions were most reasonable considering what message such oversights convey. Yet, in all its wisdom, the Indian Army has decided to block the one who actually brought their mistake to their attention. Does it reflect well on an institution that shows itself to be perturbed by actions of an entity who in fact has virtually non-existent online following & hasn't engaged in anything that could be deemed out of the line? One would have understood if the person in-charge of its Twitter account were to be admonished for turning a respected institute such as the Indian Army into a laughing stock, making it look incompetent, contrary to ones experience. To express displeasure, by blocking, however, towards someone who genuinely believes in ensuring the protection of the military's legitimate interests really does not do justice to the institute's stated commitment to justice & fairness, among others.

Godspeed

Also Read: Life At The Officers Training Academy [OTA], Chennai [Suggested Weekend Reading]