Even as the nation mourns the death of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, a fight has broken out on handling his official accounts on social networking sites reported Quint. The immediate fall out has been that Dr Kalam’s social media accounts have been closed down.
Kalam’s office on Wednesday, issued a statement saying Srijan Pal Singh, who was Kalam’s aide, should not give statements to the media in the name of the former President.
It further went on to state that Singh has already been advised to deactivate all Facebook and Twitter accounts in the name of Dr Kalam or in his memory immediately.
Singh’s tribute titled “Last Eight Hours with Kalam” which he posted on his Facebook account, had earlier gone viral on social media. In the blog, Singh had described his last few hours with Kalam at IIM Shillong.
Speaking to the Times Of India, Singh defended himself and said that Kalam told him to maintain his social networking accounts when he was alive, but added that he was ready to deactivate them, if the office wanted him to.
“But they can’t ban me from sharing my experience with him to the people. He was my guru and mentor,” said Singh.
He also told the newspaper that “I co-authored two books with Kalam. We were working on the third one when he died. Kalam was everything to me. I am only talking about my experience with him on my personal capacity. As a private citizen, I think I have every right to do that. No one can stop me.”
A day after Kalam’s death, Singh changed the Kalam’s verified Twitter handle to “In memory of Dr.Kalam”, and continued to share various things related to the former president. However, the handle has been de-activated for now.
A source in Kalam’s office told The News Minute that there had been issues with Singh before, they were unhappy that he was positioning himself as a speaker on behalf of Kalam.
Read on The Quint.