If you think the Prime Minister, Jigmi Y Thinley, is tweeting on the micro-blogging site twitter, then you are wrong. The tweet page bearing the name of the Prime Minister is created by none other than a person who is impersonating the Prime Minister.
There are three different twitter accounts of the Prime Minister which are created by the impersonator. While the two are not active, the other one tweets frequently. The tweets are about Lyonchhoen’s say on the opposition party and its members and on Gyalpoizhing land and Trowa Theatre cases.
The impersonator also tweets about the cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister’s recent programmes related to national and foreign affairs like the National Graduates Orientation Programme and Indo-Bhutan relations. While addressing the graduates at the orientation program on Friday, Prime Minister said the twitter account is not his, but of someone who is impersonating him.
“That is a crime you know that. I think it is against the twitter regulation. It is unprincipled. When you know that is being written by somebody impersonating me, then you know the kind of ethics and morality such a person is guided by,” said Lyonchhoen.
Impersonation of official or uniformed personnel is a penal offence. According to the Bhutan Penal Code, the offender shall be guilty of the impersonating an official, if the offender falsely represents to be that official.
