White House unfollows President Kovind, PM Modi

The White House has unfollowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter just weeks after following him.

The official Twitter account of the office and residence of the United States President Donald Trump has dropped the official and personal accounts of the Prime Minister of India from the list of the ones it follows on the social media platform.

The White House also unfollowed the official account of President Ram Nath Kovind.

That the White House un-followed Kovind and Modi were noticed just a day after United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended the Trump Administration to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” in view of “systematic, ongoing, egregious” violations of religious freedom in the South Asian nation.

The White House apparently started following the President and Prime Minister of India and a few other accounts related to the Government of India earlier this month, when a controversy broke out over New Delhi’s decision to supply Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets to the US.

Trump had on April 5 called Modi and requested him to relax the ban so that the US could procure the drug from India. He later subtly stepped up pressure on New Delhi and warned of “retaliation” if the US was not allowed to import the drug from India. Just hours after Trump talked tough on New Delhi’s ban on the export of the HCQ, the Modi Government announced that India would allow export of the drug to its neighbours in South Asia as well as some other worst Covid-19 affected countries.

It later did allow the export of the HCQ tablets to the US.

When the White House started following the President and Prime Minister of India, they were the only foreign leaders to be followed by it on Twitter. The number of the followers of the White House went up to 19 around April 10 with the additions of Kovind and Modi and a few other accounts related to the Government of India.

But, just weeks later, the White House seems to have dropped not only the President and Prime Minister of India, but also the other accounts related to India from the list of the ones it followed. It now follows only 13 accounts on Twitter – all related to the US Government.