CALIFORNIA, United States. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Facebook headquarters in California, hailing the political power of social media in the modern world.
“To leaders all over the world: you are not going to gain by running away from social media,” he said during a question-and-answer session.
Mr Modi also used the occasion to promote his Digital India drive for technological development.
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg moderated the hour-long session.
“The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are wrong and can stop them from moving in the wrong direction,” Mr Modi said in Hindi at the meeting in Menlo Park.
“We used to have elections every five years and now we can have them every five minutes,” the tech-savvy prime minister added.
Mr Modi, 65, regularly uses both Facebook and Twitter to communicate with millions of his followers.
Some 1,200 people attended the Q&A session, which was streamed live on Facebook.
It was part of Mr Modi’s tour of Silicon Valley, that included meeting with top officials from Apple, Google and other companies.
On Monday, Mr Modi will attend the UN General Assembly in New York and is expected to hold talks with US President Barack Obama.
Credit: BBC
