One of the biggest criticisms of Indian Democracy is that once the elections are over, the citizens see very little of their representatives!! When I was living in the US, I used to read with surprise & envy about how easy it was to get in touch with your Senator & Congressman. Also, I used to read there about how Presidents would urge citizens to flood their representatives with calls and letters on their opinions about laws – in an attempt to get the representatives to vote in a particular way. It appeared that the representatives & citizens kept in touch even after the elections – it was a 2 way conversation. Also in the US, referendums are used frequently to get citizen inputs on key issues – whereas in India once the elections are over, citizen involvement in the governance is a big zero!! The other issue is that the citizens get to evaluate the candidates during elections only for a maximum of 2 months, whereas in the US it is over several months(that itself will be a subject of a future blog!!). So citizens get to truly interact with their representatives only for 2 months in 5 years!! And we call this democracy!!
In India, the arguments for not keeping citizens engaged post elections are as follows:
1) The sheer number of people – The average number of constituents a Congressman represents in the US is around 7,00,000. The Average number of people an MP represents in India is 22,00,000. In Bangalore 3 MPs cover over 80,00,000 people. The MPs & MLAs say that it is not really possible to engage!! Of course our Indian representatives argue that atleast some of them hold Junta Durbars periodically – but that is only a minuscule of people – the AAP Junta Durbar fiasco in Delhi where lot more people turned up then expected atleast clearly shows that Citizens are keen to meet their representatives.
2) Communication channels – till very recently most Indians didn’t have access to phones. Also the database of addresses weren’t really there for an MP or MLA to tap into. The addresses in different databases including voter rolls had lots of errors. For citizens to get in touch with their representative – there was no concept of toll free numbers to call into till recently. This scenario has changed dramatically in the last few years with mobile phones & missed calls; internet access and call centers(ironically India is the leader in call center outsourcing)!!
3) MPs & MLAs can possibly do very little with the inputs – this of course is a cynical reason. But there is some truth in it – most MPs & MLAs have little influence on policies & law making – because most of the work is done by the high command of the political parties. They also claim to have little influence in governance – the governing bodies at the state, center and corporation do the work. This argument in my view is wrong – Competent MPs & MLAs can make a difference and get themselves heard(read my other blog post – Who should I vote for – party or candidate : https://gopaldevanahalli.com/2014/03/21/who-should-i-vote-for-party-or-candidate/ ).
India being a leader in customer service outsourcing & mobile phone penetration, it is possible for an MP & MLA to come up with a scalable solution to truly engage with citizens post elections. They can do the following simple things:
1) Have a grievance tracking system in place. Any issue can be reported by a citizen who is immediately given a tracking number. The issue can be reported thru a phone call into a toll free number; thru a text message; on the web or by walking into an office. The MP or MLA would act on that issue – it could mean forward the issue to a government agency and demand resolution; or directly act on it if they have influence on it. The citizens are kept informed on the status of the ticket till closure. The MPs/MLAs can then publish the statistics on the grievances – how many received, resolution statistics, performance of different government departments etc.
2)Use technology to seek opinion on major legislation and issues of the day – referendums can be conducted thru electronic polls using mobile phones and internet. If the reality shows on Indian TV can do this, there is no reason why this cannot be done by our representatives. Once the MP/MLA gets a feel for what their constituents think, they can start having a larger influence on their party’s stance on these issues.
3)Identify the right MPLAD programs (where MPs get Rs.5 Crores per annum for development) and also track progress of the project. Citizens can tell them first hand – what is the progress of a MPLAD funded project. They can also get feedback on government schemes – for example, Right to Education in their constituency – they can get inputs from citizens on its implementation – what challenges were faced. These inputs can be given to the nodal agencies so that the implementation can be bettered.
How can they fund all this? For MPs, part of the MPLAD money can be used to fund this. I haven’t calculated the costs, but I do think a low cost solution is possible. What is required more than the money is the willingness to do this. I feel that one of the compelling reasons for a representative to do this would be a selfish reason – by engaging with their constituents, their chances of winning the next election will significantly improve.
Bangalore, being the technology and innovation capital of India, can become an exemplar for citizen engagement. Let us ask the candidates before the April 17th election in Bangalore – what are their plans for Citizen Engagement? Let this be one of the criteria for choosing the candidate.
gopaldevanahalli 