Citizen Movements For Change In India

NoBribe.org

Shashank — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:40:29 +0000

nobribe.org is started by sanjay uvach in Bihar, the mecca of corruption. His idea to use it to bring to light whatever he can about corruption especially in his state Bihar.

Govloop.com

Shashank — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:31:17 +0000

Interesting social networking connecting government community. The following are eligible to join:

* gov’t employee (fed/state/local/intl)
* public policy student/professor
* good gov’t organization
* gov’t contractor with good intentions

Wonder how they decide what makes a govt. organization ‘good’ or for that matter a govt contractor with ‘good intentions’

Go to www.govloop.com to browse

Mumbai Votes

Shashank — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:35:01 +0000

http://www.mumbaivotes.com is a website started by Vivek Gilani and gives detailed profiles of politicians in Mumbai. It is a fairly comprehensive portal and a lot of hard work must have gone into putting so much information (1032 politicians so far). Pity, it is only limited to Mumbai.

We hope that this information was used by Mumbaikars while voting, although it does not seem to have motivated them to vote in large numbers.

Youth for equality

Shashank — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:41:32 +0000

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, residents of 40 villages around Modinagar have decided to exercise Rule 49(O) (Conduct of Election Rules, 1961). They will vote but not choose a candidate. These voters numbering around 150,000 are protesting against the pathetic condition of the roads in the area which have claimed the lives of countless people.

A similar protest has been planned by residents of sectors along the Delhi-Gurgaon residents in Haryana. They have given an ultimatum to the administration to fix the problems by May 2 or else they’ll boycott the elections.

The credit for motivating these villagers goes to a pressure group named Youth for Equality ( www.youthforequality.com ), which was formed in 2006 as a reaction to the policy 27% reservations for OBCs in educational institutions. The group now has a wider agenda against all forms of reservation.

Lokraj Andolan – The Quest for Swaraj

Shashank — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:37:04 +0000

Arvind Kejriwal, the father of RTI in India has started another initiative for Swaraj i.e. self rule. The idea is to shift decision making into the hands of the local citizen bodies like Gram Sabhas and Mohalla Sabhas (urban areas), who will then decide how the funds should be spent and also penalize corrupt government servants.

The website is www.lokrajandolan.org

How corrupt is your Neta?

Shashank — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:18:53 +0000

ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms – www.adrindia.org ) has put up information on corrupt politicians at www.myneta.info. This information is based on what the candidates themselves have provided in affidavits which are mandatory as per Supreme Court directive in 2003 ( which in fact was based on a PIL filed by ADR)

You can go and have a look at your local politicians’ record and decide whether you want to vote for him/her. The information is dynamic as they are continuously updating the website.

Another site of ADR is http://www.nationalelectionwatch.org/

Google and Hindustan Times Loksabha 2009 website

Shashank — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:33:41 +0000

http://www.google.co.in/loksabha2009

A typical google like website with google maps and also a customizable page based on your own constituency. It also gives some basic details of MPs from each consituency (including a yes/no about criminal record).

On first sight seems to be more news heavy when compared with Yahoo.

Yahoo’s election 2009 website

Shashank — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:25:32 +0000

Very nice website – http://in.elections.yahoo.com

It has a manifesto comparison tool, election basics, news and also some other tools ( you can indulge yourself and make your own manifesto.)

Its content source is mainly from www.jaagore.com

Definitely worth a look.

Congress Manifesto 2009

Shashank — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:16:30 +0000

A snapshot of congress manifesto for the LS elections 2009:

1. Reservations for minorities in government employment and education

2. Introducte a moderate goods and services tax

3. A voluntary national youth corp which would enable young men and women between 18-23 to serve upto two years in nation-building activities

4. Passing the Women’s Reservation Bill

5. Reserve a third of all central jobs for women

6. Reserve a portion of seats in panchayats and nagarpalikas for those below 35

7. Schools run by communal and sectarian groups to be regulated

8. Preferential treatment to SC’s ST’s and women in government contracts to simulate entrepreneurial activities

In short it’s all about RESERVATIONS and more RESERVATIONS (5 out of 8 points are about reservations). Cant imagine a more regressive thought process. There is no mention of economic and infrastructural reforms; nothing at all about any progressive measure of any kind. Basically a manifesto to garner votes.

What will they reserve next? air and drinking water I suppose?

Let’s see what the other parties have in store for us.

NOTE: The above summary of the manifesto is from a newspaper. I have since discovered the full manifesto at the congress party website www.aicc.org.in/new/manifesto09-eng.pdf; however I have not read it yet so this post will most likely change.

The manifesto of CPM (the communist party marxist) is at http://cpim.org/manifesto.pdf; I am sure it will also have some interesting stuff.

Arya Samaj launches party

Shashank — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:31:02 +0000

The Hindu arya samaj in haryana has launched a party to contest the lok sabha elections in 2009. Members should be non-smokers, non-drinkers and without criminal background. The party is called the Rashtriya Arya Rajya Sabha (RARS) and was founded last December.

Found a video at youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0RHe5Wze1M

I could not find any website so far.