Guess who’s on Facebook? Indian embassy in Nepal
April 11th, 2011 - 4:56 pm ICT by IANS
Kathmandu, April 11 (IANS) Indian diplomacy is set to make friends and woo youngsters by joining the social networking platform.
The latest entrant to join Facebook is the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, one of the biggest Indian missions abroad, and currently, with the ruling Maoist party stepping up its anti-Indian propaganda, in need of loyal friends.
On Friday, ahead of the Nepali New Year, the Kathmandu-based mission launched its own Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Embassy-of-India-Kathmandu/199580790072376
“The mission of the Indian embassy in Nepal is to expand the dimension of friendship between (the) two countries and their people via cultural exchange and mutual cooperation,” the brief introduction said.
“The Public Division of the Ministry of External Affairs went on Facebook last year,” said Apoorva Srivastava, spokesperson at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu.
“Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is on Facebook. It is the most popular social networking site in Nepal with most Nepali youths being on Facebook. Therefore, it is a most effective medium for reaching out to people.”
Starting with 49 people who like it, the Indian embassy’s Facebook page focuses on non-political events that touch a chord in Nepal - like an international conference on Buddhism that was co-hosted by the embassy as well as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an upcoming musical event in memory of Melba Devi, the first Nepali woman singer to cut a record who had close links with Kolkata, and of course, the celebrated victory of the Indian cricket team in the World Cup.
Every year, the Indian embassy in Kathmandu offers 2,000 scholarships and the Facebook page, it is hoped, will disseminate information more effectively.
However, the embassy is going to steer clear of controversies - on its new Facebook page at least.
The nascent site has not yet received any unkind comment so far.
Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood has also been keen for the embassy to be on Twitter.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
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