A true democracy???

Another weekend subsided during my now nearly 1.5 years stay in Kolkata & I was actually looking forward to going back office on Monday but thanks to Bengal – “ The Land of Bandhs”, I spent the day within the confines of my accommodation. It surely doesn’t help to know that I’ll have to work extra next Saturday to compensate for this Bandh, while these goons who initiated the bandh would be resting in their homes.

Having experienced 3 full bandhs & several part-bandhs over the past year, I knew I wouldn’t get anything to eat (I eat outside daily) & had planned my day accordingly (last time experience was really bad). I deliberately slept late around 3 – 3.30 in the morning, so that I would sleep till at least noon – negotiating half the bandh that way!!! For the rest of the day, I had planned to read a novel, eat snacks which I had hoarded, and watch TV till I get to feed myself to some serious food in the evening. But troubles always come in packages. Somehow I managed to wake up at 6 in the morning & no matter how hard I tried, couldn’t go back to sleep. I spent the whole day cursing these bandh supporters.

Surely, the bandh didn’t benefit the common man – the “ignored god” in our country. What was more frustrating was to see the violence to which some people resorted to. Who gave these people the right to virtually lock everyone inside their home & damage people’s property? All these big shots emerged on the news channel justifying the need of such action….Utter nonsense!!!. The loss in Bengal itself due to this bandh is more than 500 crores, which is way more than the losses state government would incur if they would reduce the Everest-like-state tax on fuel by 5%. Clearly, when it comes to choosing between Bandh & personal losses, the state government here favors bandh & people here have got used to it.


Most sad about the whole episode is the fact that every leader in NDA & Left advocates use of such methods to their right in DEMOCRACY. Why do they forget that the same democracy gives me the freedom of movement which they are hampering? Who are they fooling when they say that the bandh was supported by people who kept their shops closed – as if they had any other choice given the threat to their livelihood if the shop were to be vandalized by our political goons.

Wouldn’t it be great if it actually happened that the opinion of common man is taken on every issue. All it needs is a platform where people can give their opinion just like policy papers which are opened for discussions by government. The difference shall be that on matters which really matter to people, there is far more chance of their people participation which is in contrast to now where only very few people contribute. One might argue, that people may not be knowledgeable to give their view. If this is the case, then it is more of a reason for government to explain to people their actions. How can this be achieved!!



I believe this is where our IT skills would come to fore. We have already embarked on process to issue identification cards to people (UID). Why not create an enabling infrastructure - something like a “polling kiosk” all across the nation where the “common man” can come and vote on various issues using his/her UID number. The government can assign a weight to this opinion from the nation and use this to arrive at a final decision. Exactly like the IDEA ad where people SMS their views to minister & something like a feedback platform used in film NAYAK by Anil Kapoor to hear people’s grievances. Think of it, the same infrastructure can be used for various purposes -for polls which would save a lot of money, for getting a feel of pulse of the nation on various issues (at least a direction can be achieved), for accessing various services, for grievances, for spreading information etc - possibilities are endless. The ruling government can know which of its measure might just prove dangerous for the life support of government this way too – thus creating a Win-Win situation.

This way everyone will have a right to participate in nation’s working, contribute to the nation’s progress and make the government accountable. Government can actually know if people are supporting the bandh & so will the political goons. Only then can we call ourselves a true DEMOCRACY!!!

Do you think it is possible??