Smriti Irani shared a picture of herself dressed in a handwoven silk saree from Bihar.
Highlights
- Smriti Irani shared a photo of herself dressed in a handwoven silk saree
- Starting a social media campaign, she hashtagged it #IWearHandloom
- Ms Irani has urged people to follow suit and share similar pictures
Smriti Irani, recently appointed Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles, has started a new trend on Twitter.
In an attempt to encourage support for weavers, the minister shared a picture of herself dressed in a handwoven silk saree from Bihar, hashtagged #IWearHandloom on Monday. Starting a social media campaign, Ms Irani has urged people to follow suit and share pictures of themselves in handloom textiles, tagging five others.
"Indian handlooms symbolise India's heritage & culture. Wear it to carry on our rich tradition and support 43 lakh weavers & their families," Ms Irani tweeted, before sharing her photo. She tagged Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who has now resigned her post, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi.
Since tweeting before three hours of writing this, Ms Irani's picture has received over 1,000 retweets and almost 2,000 'likes.'
The hashtag caught on swiftly, with Twitter sharing pictures of their own, making #IWearHandloom trend.
The campaign is so popular already, even trolls couldn't keep away.
But all kinds of support is welcome, according to this tweet:
Have you posted your #IWearHandloom picture yet?