Didn't realise it was controversial to acquire @PMOIndia handle: Teenager

Lucknow: Eighteen-year-old Qaiser Ali, who inadvertently acquired the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle for 15 minutes, said he regrets garnering so much attention for a “wrong act”. Ali had found the @PMOIndia Twitter handle vacant, applied for it and got it approved by the micro-blogging website on Tuesday for a short while unaware of the enormity of his act, for which he later apologised. [caption id=“attachment_982651” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screengrab of the PMO India twitter handle[/caption] “I was just experimenting to get a better Twitter handle for myself and just by chance it crossed my mind to try @PMOIndia. I applied for it and also got it accepted on Tuesday,” Qaiser Ali told PTI here. An aspiring engineer, Ali said after acquiring the @PMOIndia handle he tweeted that he is a proud owner of the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle, without realising the raging political controversy that followed his move. A row had erupted on 20 May when the PMO Twitter handle was changed from @PMOIndia to @PMOIndiaArchive, automatically transferring its content and 1.24 million followers to the new account. Also, an independent Twitter handle @PMOIndia appeared after the PMO relinquished it. BJP, which is set to assume power, strongly objected to the outgoing PMO’s move to change the Twitter handle and said “it is a national digital” which should have been handed over to the new dispensation as it was. Owner of a social networking website ‘Picxter’ with over 15 lakh members worldwide, Ali said he did not like getting so much attention for his misadventure. “I created a social networking website at the age of 17 but no one speaks about it. This mistake has got me so much media attention, that I regret it,” Ali said. PTI