Message from Vikas Kanungo

Respected Community Members

India is considered as one of the most vibrant democracies in the World. However, political events in past few months in India have forced many of think whether the current democratic practices are fast becoming obsolete? I would like to site the following examples to make the case clearer:

While 93% (approx) of the citizens (as per the polling done by a few TV channels and newspapers) wanted Mr. A.P. J. Abdul Kalam as the president, our elected representatives chose the other way. In another similar case, while majority of the countrymen are in favor on the nuclear deal with USA (again indicated by the polling conducted by TV channels and newspapers), a section of the elected representatives have decided to oppose the initiative at its final state and threatened to pull down the government.

I am not arguing the merits of the decisions taken by the political parties; however this raises some serious questions and the most important of them is -whether the democratic practices are becoming obsolete? Do we elect representatives to represent the aspirations and views of their constituencies or do we elect rulers to rule us for a period of five years? Most of the incidents point that once elected, the elected representatives pursue their party and personal aspirations rather than of those who elect them to parliament and legislative assembly.

The present democratic processes were devised in an age when information technologies were not prevalent and there were not enough means for citizens to communicate their opinions and aspiration on every significant national and international issue. But now that use of ICTs and telecommunication tools fast becoming the second nature of emerging information society , use of ICTs and mobile technologies in a continuous citizen government interaction has the potential of reforming the democratic practices. The use of ICT is fast becoming prevalent in all areas of economic and social life , but is being largely ignored in political and democratic processes.

One of the examples of successful use of information and communication technologies recently came in light when the seven wonders of the world were chosen by collecting opinions of people from across the world through internet and mobile based voting. Such examples are the beginning of the new ways of democratic practices and decision making.

With the penetration of mobile phones increasing at the phenomenal rate, even those who were on the wrong side of the digital divide are being mainstreamed and have means of participating in the new age society interactions through their mobile devices.

Is this the beginning of Democracy version 2.0 for the 21st century knowledge society?

I would like to invite the readers and the members of the community to communicate their comments on the issue and also forward any innovative ideas for making democratic practices compatible with the emerging information society. Please log into the editorial section at http://www.mgovworld.org and register your comments online.

Vikas Kanungo