New Delhi:
She joined the Twitter brigade much after many other politicos. And she does not yet have followers in the hundred thousands like they do. But this is probably the most effective use of micro-blogging in Indian politics ever, given that Shashi Tharoor's did not quite go his way. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj tweeted almost every step across a one-km bridge as her party's Ekta Yatra crossed over from Punjab to Lakhanpur in J&K on Tuesday.
Seated on a Rath along with party colleague Arun Jaitley, Swaraj gave moment-by-moment Twitter updates like, "We are marching in a group of 500 people holding tricolour" and "Arun, Shanta Kumar, Anurag Thakur are with me" and "It is a long bridge. We are just 200 metres from J&K side of the bridge."
And finally as her Rath rolled toward the denouncement in today's high-pitched action, she tweeted, "Crossed the bridge," "The road is blocked," "We have been stopped". For the second time in 24 hours then, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were arrested.
Sushma Swaraj has tweeted right through the Ekta Yatra episode giving updates on her detention at and eviction from the Jammu airport on Monday too. Tweets like "Terminal gates are locked. We are not allowed there" and "The plane is not allowed to leave."
When she was arrested along with Jaitley yesterday, she continued the live action updates tweeting, "Arrested - cars - separate - don't know where to?"
She reminisced: "I knew Arun Jaitley when he contested for Delhi Univ Students Union and I addressed meetings in his support - 36 years back" and "Now we are addressing youth rallies together as Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. I owe everything to RSS/ABVP sanskars.
She quoted poetry: "I am reminded of what poet Faiz wrote '
Nisar main teri galiyon pe ae watan ki jahan chali hai rasam ki koi na sar utha ke chale."
She was aggressive: "
Kahte hain 'dekhte hain kaun jhanda fahrata hai aur kiska jhanda fahrata hai'. Arre hamari mayon ne kaayar jane hain kya?" "Lo suno - Hum jhanda fahrayeinge. Aur Bharat ka jhanda fahrayeinge. Bas hamein physically pahunchne do." "Bharat Mata ki jai. Vande Maatram - Vande Maatram. Bas hamein jaane do."
And she gave information: "Live Webcast of rally at http://live.bjp.org 11 am onwards. Dr S P Mukherjee was arrested on the bank of river Raavi here in 1953."
Swaraj calls her Twitter page "...my Autobiography - unedited and not published so far." She has already logged 350 tweets, And betwixt all the political agenda some tweets tell her story - 140 characters at a time. Like when she tweeted, "I passed my law and started my practice before Supreme Court of India in 1973." Did you know that?