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Political parties of all hues and contours jumped on to the online bandwagon,
this time, in pursuit of the Indian voter. Not all succeeded, but a start was
surely made.
Power comes from the barrel of a gun, is what Chinese dictator Mao Tse Tung
had proclaimed many decades back. The Chinese revolution in the 1950s became the
sort of template for almost all the revolutionaries across the globe, be it
Fidel Castro in Cuba to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, from Saparmurat Niyazov in
Turkmenistan to Prachanda in Nepal. Apparently, gun and government complimented
each other beatifically.
Then in 2009, to be precise, another revolution took shape, a black man with
mixed heritage ascended to the most powerful position in the world by being
elected as President of the United States, beating all odds. A year earlier, no
one would have given Barrack Obama even a sniffing chance of winning the
election, but that is what he did, in a manner that took most of the world by
surprise. His strategy was similar to the ones used by all the dictators (a
promise of change that roused the populace) except for one crucial difference:
instead of the gun, Obama relied on copper wire. His message of change was not
spread by gunshots but by telephone and cable lines across the fifty states of
the US. The medium became almost as powerful as the message itself.
Over April and May 2009, this Obama template was put to its most rigorous
test in the largest democratic election of the world: the fifteenth Lok Sabha
elections that took place amidst much rancour and pain. With over 8,00,000
polling stations and around 400 mn people casting their votes, this was the
mother of all elections across the world.
Coming of Cyber Politics
Since this election was a closely fought one, no party left any stone
unturned in its pursuit of the voter, with much attention and time being given
to the first-time voters and the tech-savvy middle class. Impressed by the way
Obama spread the message of change, political parties used every means at their
disposal to spread their word, be it television, print or hoardingsfrom
roadside walls plastered with posters to fancy adverts on television. The battle
for the ballot also spilled on to the cyberspace, as each party looked at making
gains by hosting websites, blogs, or sending emails.
It is not as if the political parties suddenly discovered the Internet as a
medium, both the Congress and the BJP have had online presence for a long time.
For instance, years ago, Congress leader Jagdish Tytler had launched an online
forum while for BJP it was their tech savvy leader Pramod Mahajan. In fact, BJP
had launched its own website and formed an IT cell way back in 1997. The rest,
like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Telugu Desam Party, Shiv Sena,
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the rest, all have a web presence.
| Google is
working with all major political parties in India
Shailesh Rao, MD, Google India, talks
about the ongoing election and how political parties are trying to woo
voters online
Indian political parties and Internet,
sounds like an odd match?
It may sound odd at the moment but let me assure you that it certainly
isnt. Political parties in India and anywhere else in the globe need to
connect to their constituencies and their electorate, this is how democracy
functions. Meanwhile, Internet is a powerful transformation tool, that
connects millions of individuals dynamically. Hence, there is a natural
alignment between the political class that wants to spread their message and
help voters make intelligent decisions and the power of the Internet that
lets them do the same. To facilitate this, we have set up a Google India
Election Center (http://google.co.in/loksabhaelections) with other partners,
to basically spread the awareness and appropriate information to the right
audience. At the center, one can find information pertaining to overall
scenario as well as profile of MPs, etc.
But why so much excitement now?
Broadly speaking, Internet has arrived in Indian society. All the
excitement is an acknowldgement of the power of the Internet as a medium.
There are close to 50-60 mn people of India on the net, and these are
informed citizens; the kind who can bring about and lead change within their
communities. They are voracious readers and active citizens not only reading
but also sharing their views through blogs and emails. Political parties are
trying to reach out to this audience and in doing so, they are adopting the
technology of the masses. The success of Elections 09 is that it has
brought the Internet right in the center stage. And this is just the
beginning, in the next elections we will see a much larger role assigned to
Internet by these parties.
Which are the political parties that you
are working with?
We are working with all major political parties, ranging from Congress,
BJP, CPI (M). It is nice to note that all of these parties recognize the
power of the medium and of the message and have immense interest and
technical fluency when it comes to going online. So, even while BJP is
launching a highly interactive revamped website, others like the Congress
and the CPI (M) are launching channels on the YouTube.
What are the solutions that Google has to
offer to political parties?
As one of the most dominant search engines in India, the #1 advantage
that Google has to offer is the Google Adwords, that lets parties place
their adverts in a very targeted and scientific manner. Then, parties can
make video community on YouTube and social community on Orkut. We also have
an SMS platform that can be used to reach out to millions of users
instantly. |
Nonetheless, the parties this time moved to the next stage, from static
website to interactive Internet strategies. Again, the Obama template comes into
play. According to reports, the biggest game changer for Obama was his community
building exercise, which included an impressive 13 mn email addresses and some 2
mn friends on his social networking site. Not surprisingly, parties are trying
to emulate the same in India by actively using technology to reach out to the
electorate.
The Saffron Winner
In this cyber race, without an iota of doubt, it was the saffron party that
took the lead over its competitors. Numerous announcements emanated from the IT
cell headquarters in Delhi, like the revamping of its party website (bjp.org)
and the launch of a blog by the prime ministerial candidate LK Advani (blogs.lkadvani.in).
Going by the figures, septuagenarian Advani was the most tech-active leader
right now in India, posting blogs, chatting online, videos, images, and the
works. Not only that there was a user group named Friends of the BJP, that
religiously updated videos and blogs on different websites like YouTube and
Orkut. According to BJP, its website www.lkadvani.com which was launched on
November 8, 2008, was getting 20,000 unique hits everyday during the election
campaign. The site boasted of some 150 archives, 300 photos, and some 700 pages
of textual content.
|
Hi-tech BJP |
| Prodyut
Bora: The Cyber Chanakya for BJP
While there is a lot of excited noise surrounding BJPs online and digital moves, it is not something that has happened overnight. The party has been putting in place a digital focus since 1997, when the IT cell of the party was set up. While much credit is due to the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan for setting up the cell, the actual groundwork was done by an IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Prodyut Bora. Over the past years, the IT Cell has proliferated to over fifteen states across India and has established a substantial presence in cyberspace. Though much of the focus has been to project LK Advani as the leader through websites, blogs, etc. Almost all the major leaders have their own personal domains through which they can reach out to the public at large. For instance, Narendra Modi and Ram Naik.
Beyond that, the saffron party is also leagues ahead of its rivals in terms of usage of technology. In fact, BJP is probably the only large organization in the country that is going 100% open source. It has gone in for a highly efficient virtualized environment for its servers. In fact, some time back when Dataquest had come out with a CIO Powerlist, Bora was listed as one of the few CIOs in India. And in case, BJP
is to win this election, a part of the credit will surely go to all the
groundwork in cyberspace that has gone by. |
The Cyber Chanakya for BJP was Prodyut Bora, the convener of the partys IT
cell. The IIM-Ahemedabad alumni had a robust gameplan for the party and tied up
the Advani website with social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, etc. Even
though the penetration of the Internet is still miniscule, around four crore,
but of these around 60% live in top eight cities impacting around fifty Lok
Sabha seats. So its a medium worth considering. says Bora.
Waking Giant
Congress (I) was initially slow to respond to the online onslaught but soon
it woke up to the challenge. After initiali hibernation, the party portal
projected a clean and revamped look. Biswajeet Prithvi Singh, chairman, computer
department, Congress says, We agave a cleaner and leener look to our
five-year-old website; and there was a team that is updating the content
frequently, he says.
The party launched an online video community on You Tube, and there were
scores and scores of Rahul fanclubs on Facebook and Orkut. Yet, the party never
launched an individual blog or website for its biggest face in the election,
Rahul Gandhi. We are not going to have any individualistic website, emphasised
Singh.
And the Followers
So, where were the rest of the political parties when it came to cyberspace,
one might wonder. Another technocrat who expectedly did well was Chandrababu
Naidu and his Telugu Desam Party. In fact, there was one party website for the
United Kingdom based non-resident Indians (which has an image of Naidu morphed
onto a photograph of Obama with the White House in the background). The website
also had an online contribution campaign wherein the people are asked to
contribute through credit card, Internet enabled bank account, PayMate (Mobile
payment), ITZ cash cards, debit cards, etc.
| Since all
political parties aspire to be technologically savvy, they need to have an
online strategy
Sudish Balan, business director, Tonic
Media
Among the current political parties that
have taken to the Internet, which are the ones doing good and not doing so
well?
It is still early to make a pronouncement on the same. The success of
the campaign is dependent on the message that is given out. Unlike, in the
US where the movement on the Internet complemented to the build-up of the
elections itself, in India, it is certainly not the case. Internet is still
in its early days here and for the parties it is just another medium. Among
the parties, BJP has indeed taken a lead in terms of making its online
presence felt, but will it really translate into bigger vote share, I have
my doubts.
If that is not the case, then why so much
hype around it?
Novelty factor, Internet is a novel medium. You are either on it, or
just a laggard. Since all political parties aspire to be technologically
savvy, they need to have an online strategy. You even have the rumours
floating around that Mayawati would be starting a blog.
Among the current leaders in the fray, who
are best suited for the Internet?
Internet is basically a young medium. Hence, automatically it is the
young brigade that has a natural advantage. According to some surveys done,
if tomorrow Priyanka or Rahul Gandhi were to start blogging they would be
instantly popular with the masses. On the saffron side, Narendra Modi has
been quite successful in projecting himself online. And also, LK Advani has
done quite a good job at trying to reinvent his image. |
Nonetheless, the parties this time moved to the next stage, from static
website to interactive Internet strategies. Again, the Obama template comes into
play. According to reports, the biggest game changer for Obama was his community
building exercise, which included an impressive 13 mn email addresses and some 2
mn friends on his social networking site. Not surprisingly, parties are trying
to emulate the same in India by actively using technology to reach out to the
electorate.
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