Modi and selfies: The PM has come a long way from the lotus debacle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves selfies, and now he has clicked another one with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

In the tweet, Modi tagged Abbott and called him his ‘friend’. It was taken at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

With my friend @TonyAbbottMHR at the MCG. pic.twitter.com/mprgKYPuxG

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 18, 2014

Within twenty minutes the tweet was going viral with 662 retweets and 830 people hit the favourite button on it.

Modi has often tweeted out selfies that have gone viral. The last selfie that we saw was with the students of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) on 14 November.

“I wrote on the selfie with my young friends at QUT.. Today is 14th November. Pandit Nehru’s birthday. My good wishes to children,” Modi said in a tweet. Modi wrote in Gujarati.

The PM and his friends at QUT. pic.twitter.com/aa1LgP2zlO

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 14, 2014

The Prime Minister’s list of selfies range from those with his mother to even starry eyed celebrities posing with him. Sonam Kapoor went to the extent of calling her selfie with Modi the ‘best selfie ever’.

Celebs were seen flocking around the prime minister during the launch of the Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai to take selfies.

“#bestselfieever #namo #modivate #relliancefoundation,” Sonam, who met Modi at the inauguration had tweeted on 25 October.

#bestselfieever #namo #modivate #relliancefoundation http://t.co/tgB2y1oKeH pic.twitter.com/nBAEHTPOjG

— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) October 25, 2014

Meanwhile Ashiqui 2 star Shraddha Kapoor took a selfie with the PM along with Aditya Roy Kapur during the inauguration.

This pic is going to be cherished 4evr!The most precious opportunity to meet our beloved PM yday!More power to him! pic.twitter.com/d72FW6rbWF

— Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) October 26, 2014

Sonu Nigam too was seen with his wife in a selfie with Modi which he tweeted out after the inauguration of the hospital. He called it the ‘Modi Nigam selfie’

And not just Bollywood celebrities. Modi had wished writer Chetan Bhagat on his birthday by tweeting out a selfie. Modi tweeted: “Many many happy returns of the day! Sharing the selfie you took last evening.”

Dear @chetan_bhagat, many many happy returns of the day! Sharing the selfie you took last evening pic.twitter.com/JEhky8lOWJ

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 22, 2014

A day before that Poonam Mahajan had tweeted out a selfie with the PM when he was campaigning for the Maharashtra elections in Mumbai.

First ever selfie with our future PM @narendramodi Victory for Mumbai #bkc pic.twitter.com/WI6a1IFbqn

— Poonam Mahajan (@poonam_mahajan) April 21, 2014

However, the cutest one was with his mother. The tweet saw thousands of retweets and Twitter had said Modi’s selfie was the “most re-tweeted” item that day, while #SelfieWithModi was second on most trending topics across India. In the photo Modi is seen taking blessings from his mother.

Sought blessings from my Mother pic.twitter.com/OegXhartLx

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2014

But all of Modi’s selfies weren’t really appreciated. In fact, he was involved in a major selfie fail shortly after casting his vote in Gandhinagar on 30 April. Modi stood in front of scrum of TV cameras and, with a theatrical flourish, gave them the most meta photo op ever. He raised his innocuous looking white mobile phone and took a picture of himself, while attempting to hold his indelibly inked finger and a BJP lotus aloft. All the other cameras inevitably went crazy. It was a great moment, ruined only slightly by the fact that the BJP Prime Ministerial nominee in his zeal stuck the BJP lotus symbol straight up his nose.

Also flashing the BJP symbol did not go down well with the EC. The photos that the camera persons did click were asked to be pulled down. However, since it has been a long while, here’s exactly what the PM did.

But he has come a long way since and quite evidently has mastered the art of the selfie.