New Delhi: After PM's successful interaction with people on radio, the cabinet ministers of Narendra Modi government will hold fortnightly talkathons with on social media.
The interaction on social media will include YouTube, addressing live and spontaneous questions.
Senior official of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry told TOI, "The idea is not just to interact with people but also to answer their difficult questions. Policymakers are thinking hard before taking every decision and the thought process has to be conveyed to people".
The initiative was launched on Monday evening with Minister Piyush Goyal taking 20 questions in 30 minutes. Most of the questions were based on electricity, coal allocation, and energy, pressures of being a minister in Modi's cabinet and even why he was chosen to be US President Barack Obama's minister in waiting.
It is also expected that ministers like Suresh Prabhu and Arun Jaitely would be next in number who may talk about the upcoming rail and financial budgets. The questions will be taken from Facebook and Twitter and ministers' reply will stream live through YouTube.
"The format is inspired from PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat, but we will make sure the questions here are live and are also chosen wisely to form a balanced bouquet of queries," another official said.
Earlier, the government was planning to have weekly interactive sessions on All India Radio with secretaries of different minister but later it was decided that ministers should be roped in to increase the government's connect with masses.
The decision was made a few days ago, officials said, when the ministry received reports of the PM not being happy with the government's media outreach, particularly in interior areas.
A few days ago, I&B Minister Arun Jaitley had also held brainstorming workshops with the officials to improve media management, where it was decided that the government should use all avenues of media to interact with people and not lose touch with the masses.
Since PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' is proving to be successful, it is expected that this initiative too will be fruitful.
