For the past two weeks, the two major political parties in India have been conducting workshops and brainstorming sessions on how to effectively use social media. Those politicians who had a head start in using these media spoke extensively on how they accidentally opened accounts on Facebook and Twitter and slowly realised their impact and reach. They also spoke about interesting conversations they have had on social media and also the abuse they face. Workshops were also held for party spokespersons on how to debate competently on new and old media -- TV, Radio and Print u00a0-- without getting into meaningless point scoring. But some also saw the value in mud-slinging like calling each other frogs and cockroaches (yes, they did that).