Technology empowers everyone, REALLY? - Instablogs
Technology empowers everyone, REALLY?
Abhishek Pandey , Delhi: Feb 20 2009
Made Popular Feb 20 2009
India :

Technology empowers everyone, REALLY?

Lal Krishna Advani would advertise his poll campaign on 2000 website, according to one of the news agencies report. The poll campaigning on the net is a new trend in India. Advani is likely to become the pioneer of this trend.

BJP is having five official websites. Advanis’s website is the most popular among its all other websites these days. Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan also have their own website. BJP stalwart Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi also started his website and blog recently to address the issue of global warming and other environmental issues, though political issues are there. BJP has its own official website and also own one more website which is called friends of BJP’s website. BJP is also present on Orkut and Facebook; both are well-known and very popular social networking sites among netizens. Internet has been chosen as one of the best medium for campaigning in next LS elections by the India’s most ‘traditional’ party.

Narendra Modi has 4966 supporters on FaceBook group far more than 297 of LK Advani. He is first among all the Indian in largest supporter base on FB. Manmohan Singh is on second position with 2590 members in his FB group. Rahul Gandhi is on third with 1982 supporters followed by his mother Ms Sonia Gandhi, who is having 988 supporters. Atal Bihari is also there only with 158 net supporters. There are some other leaders of different parties with nominal supporter base.

Social Networking sites are there. Online forums are there. There are not less than 1000 online groups, forums on Indian political parties and their leaders. Most of the national and regional parties have their online presence with poor layout and design of their websites, except few of them are designed well.

Internet poll advertising and fund raising was one of the innovations of US President Obama in the US elections this time. There are ample numbers of ways today to advertise on the Internet. There are websites like Adsense/Adword, Netclix, Bidvertiser and lots more to provide facility to advertise anything on the net. YouTube is there to upload the election speeches online. Congress is also trying to follow the trend and have started uploading the speeches of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders on YouTube.

Internet penetration has increased in India and this has become the best place to attract the audience which has no time to go to attend the public meetings or gatherings of the political parties. It will surely attract the software engineers, NRIs, industrialist and other elite class people, who can get the access of leaders’ speeches inside their air conditioned office cabins or in their bed rooms by the click of a mouse.

Internet has changed the lives of millions. This Lok Sabha poll will tell us, how it can affect the political career of the Indian leaders in the country, where 60% population still lives in village and most of our people are not having access to Internet. Forget about Internet and computers, they are not even having proper electricity supply for irrigation or lighten their house with CFL. Proper roads are not in many villages for daily commuters. Students are dropping out after primary classes. Farmers are committing suicide. Migrants are beaten up in other states because they are going away from their home to get jobs.

In such kinds of unpleasant situation, Internet is best medium to keep your eyes closed from all these problems. Because in the virtual world of web, Politicians need not to go and listen the problems of the people on the ground. They need not to feel the plight of the people by standing beside them; those are not having even basic facilities. In India, Internet will not be as success as it was in US because we are India not US. Most of the US citizens have easy access to computer and internet but every Indian does not have even access to two meals a day. My dear Politicians of the great nation called India; choose the technology to empower the vote bank but empower the people first, so they can get access of it.

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2 Stars
Sukhbahar
Ludhiana, India
this is good tactic and I am just waiting for the day when the voting through internet be a reality in India.
2 Stars
Sanwali
Shimla, India
Swear! its a pain to stand in line for voting. More when you know that all of them are corrupt and most uneducated.
1 Stars
Milind
Thiruvananthapuram, India
One line campaign... my foot. I don't even wanna click vote even if it is made online...no trust in Indian politics...all are corrupt and I could not dig my head in the sand like an ostrich...i can't let them do that F*** again and again.
1 Stars
What does the BJP understand about technology? They are just a subversive elements out to undo everything that India is rightly proud about. Just the other day, a BJP leader in Karnataka claimed that Indian pseudo-intellectuals are trying to undermine Indian culture under the cover of art. He had all the right qualifications to be a rowdy sheater and not a representative of Kannadigas.
2 Stars
Elias
Bombay, India
Yeah right! They do get a better way out to reach the kind of people who are LEAST bothered about their false promises and hypocrisy. But how will they change their corrupt mindset?
1 Stars
Gaurav
Banglore, India
on line campaign or adding fanfare on Facebook or Ourkut will not save BJP. Future for BJP is bleak if Advani will be projected and the next PM. With this there are hopes that BJP will miss the chance to add more seats to its previous total. Advani's past and particularly Babri Mosque demolition and a statement of Jinna being secular will now surely haunt him now.
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