Net, social media future of governance for many; sceptics insist on grass-roots politics

In 2009, when the BJP was licking its wounds from its second consecutive defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, few thought that a high octane, obsessive presidential-style campaign, aided by a massive social media blitzkrieg, would see the party crossing the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha.

An increasing use of smartphones and rising Internet penetration in the upwardly mobile, especially the youth, will ensure that the Net and social media are the future of governance and politics in the decade to come, say officials and politicians.

Experts say e-governance, and even m-governance, may change the way citizens and the government interact with each other and how G2C (government to citizens) services are delivered. The spread of citizen service centres, rising Aadhaar coverage and widening tele-density and broadband Internet use will serve as game changers.

"Citizens' expectations have changed. People, especially the young, are e-commerce consumers. They expect the government to provide painless access to online services," noted a senior bureaucrat, who was among those who drove the state government's e-governance thrust. "Like people can order groceries online without going to shops, they should be able to access government services and apply for them. Also, such transactions should be cashless and paperless."

He, however, noted that while the government was computerising its services, it would not serve the purpose if unnecessary process, permissions and work flows were not eliminated. "Blind computerisation will not serve the purpose… processes have to be simplified," the official said, adding that elimination of unnecessary consents and licences, like the ones needed for setting up industries, and reducing the number of officials who had to clear a file, were necessary.

"In the state and the Centre, work is underway in that direction," he noted, stressing that "the government has to re-design services and outsource non-core activities to efficient private partners".

Some services available online include e-registration of leave and licences and first sale of flats, booking appointments for driving licences, lodging grievances through the Aaple Sarkar portal and filing RTI applications. The state government is also planning a portal to look up services and other details under the Right to Services Act.

"The future of governance globally is e-governance and e-governance is effectively about making governments more interactive and responsive to citizens," noted former union minister of state for telecom and IT Milind Deora, adding that with the spread of broadband, services were becoming interactive.

"Social media makes people accountable," said Deora, who is among the politicians active on Twitter, adding that the use of online platforms had "democratised the way in which government services are accessed". He pointed to how income tax returns could be filed online and passports could be renewed using the route.

However, some sceptics point out that while a vast majority of people still lacked Internet and telecom access and ease with English to use the Internet or access e-governance confidently, social media interactions, especially by politicians and officials were top-down in approach and could never compensate for a human interface.

A senior Shiv Sena leader said that in politics, social media could never substitute interpersonal communications with voters and the need for a grassroots level network that the party is famed for in and around Mumbai. He pointed to how the Sena still had a network which penetrated to the level of slums, lower and middle income group housing and chawls, which provided it with organisational muscle and a committed cadre base — something which social media with its low attention spans could never attain.

"The BJP launched a scheme to enrol members via a missed call on a number. However, civic polls in some cities showed that the votes polled by the party were less that the number of members purportedly enrolled there using the route… this use of social media is artificial and can never substitute the rough and tumble of grass-roots level politics," the Sena leader scoffed.