Narendra Modi beats Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau to become the most liked world leader on Facebook

Interestingly, the five most liked pictures in 2017 were all posted by Modi with his photo at Odisha’s famous Lingaraj temple becoming the most popular.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most liked world leader and far ahead of others, including US President Donald Trump, when it comes to popularity on Facebook, according to a study which said 43.2 million people follow the Indian premier on the social media platform.

Trump, who rules the other social media platform Twitter, is in second place with 23.1 million followers, according to the study “World Leaders on Facebook” released today by Burson Cohn & Wolfe.

The study analyses the activity of 650 Facebook pages of heads of state and government and foreign ministers from January 1, 2017 using aggregate data from Facebook’s Crowdtangle tool, it said in a statement.

Over the past 14 months, the Facebook page of Trump had by far the most interactions of any world leader on Facebook, with a total of 204.9 million interactions (defined as the total number of comments, likes and shares), almost twice as many as Modi with 113.6 million interactions, the study said.

Modi, 67, has always encouraged use of social media platforms to stay in touch with the public.

Interestingly, the five most liked pictures in 2017 were all posted by Modi with his photo at Odisha’s famous Lingaraj temple becoming the most popular. Along with the Lingaraj temple photo, Modi wrote- “Prayed at the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar. The magnificence of the Temple and Temple Complex leaves a lasting impression on the mind.”

Among videos, the third most popular Facebook live video was one shared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Modi’s visit to the Jewish state in July last.

Apart from Modi’s personal page, the official Facebook page of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) figures in the survey as it is fourth in overall list of most liked pages and 9th in the list of interaction rate as well as total number of interactions.

The survey said the PMO was also the fourth most checked-in destination, after the White House, the Ugandan Presidency and 10, Downing Street.

In the list of “Peer Connection of World Leaders”, which counts the pages of world leaders liked by their counterparts, Modi is 10th, the survey said.

Justin Trudeau gets Narendra Modi bear hug amid Khalistan row

Canada PM Justin Trudeau’s maiden India visit plunged into another controversy on Thursday over a dinner invitation to convicted Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Khalistan Row : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday and hold an extended bilateral meeting along with a group of his ministers, even as his maiden India visit plunged into another controversy on Thursday because of a dinner invitation to convicted Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner to India.

On Friday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and his family at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Greeting the visiting head of state, PM Modi gave Trudeau his infamous bear hug.

After his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the Canadian Prime Minister will also meet the heads of India Inc in a round-table event.

Trudeau’s Khalistani problem continues to dog him, while the Canadian media has said that he has been given the cold shoulder by the Indian government, even as the latter has denied any such speculation. For his part, Trudeau on Thursday said that Atwal should never have been invited.

While the controversy raged, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening welcomed Trudeau on his visit and said he looked forward to meeting him on Friday. In a separate tweet, Modi said that he hoped Trudeau had an enjoyable visit to India so far and that he particularly looked forward to meeting Trudeau’s three children Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.

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