Had a very constructive online meeting this morning, chaired by chief minister @pinarayivijayan, to discuss plans for a Metro in Thiruvananthapuram, something i have been clamouring for ever since becoming an MP. An excellent discussion concluded with @CMOKerala deciding to constitute an advisory committee to consult stakeholders on some of my proposals for the first phase.
Our vision for the Metro must be to anticipate the needs of generations yet unborn, while fulfilling the needs of today and minimising disruption in the present during its construction. I am confident that, with the right approach, we can make Thiruvananthapuram an ideal capital city for the 21st century.
വിഴിഞ്ഞം അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര ഡീപ്പ് വാട്ടർ മൾട്ടിപർപ്പസ് തുറമുഖം പ്രധാനമന്ത്രി @narendramodi അല്പസമയത്തിനകം രാഷട്രത്തിന് സമർപ്പിക്കും.
വേദിയിലെത്തിയ പ്രധാനമന്ത്രിയെ അദാനി ഗ്രൂപ്പ് ചെയർമാൻ ഗൗതം അദാനി പൊന്നാടയണിയിച്ച് ആദരിച്ചു.
@PMOIndia@CMOKerala#VizhinjamInternationalSeaPort
1/5 A rather important thread that i hope will be read in our country’s journalism schools:
The last few days have offered an object lesson in how the news is “made“. @IndianExpress wanted to draw attention to their new Malayalam podcast, so they did two somewhat shameless things:
First, they took an innocuous statement (I said i had multiple “options to spend my time” in literary pursuits) and made a headline out of it in English that implied i was exploring other political options. And as usual, the rest of the media reacted to the headline and the political class reacted to the media, and I was left dealing with the mess!
The expression #BreakingNews has multiple meanings after all…
I was born on Mahashivratri and named Shashi for the crescent moon on Lord Shiva’s forehead. In the Kerala calendar, my "nakshatram birthday" is today. It has always been a very special day for my family.
Good question. This has been the case for four years! A source at the old Twitter India told me there was a problem he couldn’t understand: he had reviewed my daily statistics over six months, and found a strange pattern — my followers went up by over 1000 a day, about 60 - 70 “unfollowed” me each day, but my overall followers total wouldn’t budge above 8.495 million.
He thought it was an algorithm glitch. Since my account is never “suggested” for anyone to follow, and many of my followers complain about not receiving most of my posts on their timeline, I wondered if i had been “shadow-banned”. (My source has since left @X),
After three years plus of noticing this and no change under @X, I wrote to @elonmusk to inquire about this and received a lawyer’s letter in return — flatly denying there was a problem! So much for corporate responsiveness….
The only practical consequence of my inquiry is that my followers count now drops unsteadily each day — from the peak of 8.495m to 8.429m today.
There is clearly something wrong that the people in charge of @XCorpIndia don’t care about. But more and more people have been noticing and asking me, so i have finally decided to go public about it.
Given all the more important issues in our public life, it seems too petty to mention. But whether it is deliberate or accidental, i hope those asking understand that there is a problem. Perhaps laying it out here might get the attention of someone responsible at @XCorpIndia — but I am not holding my breath!
In Kalpetta, Wayanad, helped to unload two truck loads of relief supplies organised by the MP Office in Thiruvananthapuram. While there is no shortage of food in the relief camps, the homeless are sleeping on floors. We have brought soft and spongy bedrolls for them along with other supplies.
Team India won the greatest and most exciting cricket match I have ever seen! Bereft of words… seeing the emotions of the players on both sides on the TV screen says it all…. A privilege to be alive and able to witness such a contest. Well played South Africa — and congratulations to the magnificent #BoysInBlue!!
#WorldCupFinal #INDvSA2024