Comments on: Will Indian politicians follow in Obama’s e-footsteps?

By: Rajiv Bhatia

Rajiv Bhatia — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:48:24 +0000

In 2004 Ms. Sonia Gandhi launched the website http://www.JoinCongress.com which has now come up with Social Networking concept. May be it will help the new congress leaders.

By: Indiainfraguru

Indiainfraguru — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:44:47 +0000

This may not work in India as India is a country with more than 50% of them are below povery line ir less than a dollor/day earning

By: BS BUSTER

BS BUSTER — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:46:28 +0000

Quite ”revealing” comments here – -

Don’t worry, if the past is any indication, Indian politicians, like their counterparts in other fields, will follow in the footsteps of the Americans.

Indians are the biggest ‘copy-cats’; but they won’t admit it because they consider themseves SOOOOO ”HUMBLE” and ”HOLY” !!

- they are the biggest H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-I-E-S !!!!!!!!

By: reddy

reddy — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:15:05 +0000

Change is permanent.

By: Chirag

Chirag — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:19:51 +0000

Yes I think Indian Political heroes will have to do this.
This can now be done in an efficient way.
Take for an instance I read Aamir Khans blog there he has 2500+ comments on a post so why can politicians do so ?

By: Moksh Juneja

Moksh Juneja — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:19:59 +0000

Sakshi, my question to you is why restrict ourselves to Facebook alone. We know that there is lot of latent potential in Orkut too ad other social media platforms??

Omar Abdullah had started his blog and the had to shut the blog for reasons better known to him.

Would like to have your view on this??

By: stanley v k

stanley v k — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:21:09 +0000

Very good article. We Indians will regain all our past prosperity very soon. We have no egos…we are willing to do any jobs. We need good leaders…

By: Godzilla 2.0

Godzilla 2.0 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:39:42 +0000

Sakshi, you are talking about a group of people who, if I remember correctly, were given laptops by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation but let the machines collect dust as they did not know how to switch them on.
I agree the younger Facebook and Orkut generation are better connected and more in pace with changing times. And even the older generation of Indian politicians are slowly shaking off complacency to become more net savvy. But to use this new-found knowledge of the WWW as a tool in poll campaigning is asking a bit too much of our leaders. We will get there in time.

By: Saket

Saket — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:13:52 +0000

Your article encourages a valuable dialogue and a timely topic of discussion. However, not only do I agree that the number of internet users in India is too small, especially relative to our population; expecting the use of Web 2.0 in attracting any sizable voting base from our populace is overly optimistic (at least for this upcoming general election).

Your article did get me rethinking about “E-Democracy”—something I had first started thinking about when I read “Being Digital” a book published in 1996, well ahead of its time by Nicholas Negroponte (for those unfamiliar, check out his book review on http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/negro ponte.html)

E-Democracy is about using the internet and Web 2.0 technology as a channel to eliminate some of the distance constraints in direct democracy and enhance political accessibility, increase citizen dialogue and build more expansive and direct participation in public policy decision-making. Readers from the US who have ever spent even an hour watching C-SPAN will see where I’m coming from.

I would like to see the e-footsteps continue well beyond election campaigning and into use by the current political leaders like Rahul Gandhi or a Sachin Pilot in attempting to bring our government closer to the governed.

Now, when we have an active localized group on Facebook or MySpace discussing and debating issues like the “Maharashtra governments’ plans to transform Mumbai by imposing a fine on residents who hang their clothes out of the balcony, or those who have not painted their buildings in years”–that’s when I raise the praise flags & call it a truly inspirational movement!

By: Nikhil Sharma

Nikhil Sharma — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:34:23 +0000

Q. Will Indian politicians follow in Obama’s e-footsteps?
A. No

Moving on..