“Jaago Re!” and ADR – Two Excellent Initiatives
Last week, I was alerted to two excellent initiatives: Jaago Re! and ADR.
Jaago Re!’s focus is to get India’s one billion voters to register and participate in the electoral process.
Its uniqueness lies in exploiting technology “…to make registering to vote online a possibility. It also serves as a one-stop-shop solution to all your voting needs.”
On top of that, “…it gives you the opportunity to run your own voter registration drive and be a part of the movement to get the entire country registered!” I whole-heartedly support this initiative and recommend everyone to at least have a look at the website.
I believe Jaago Re! is also partnering with Loksatta in Maharashtra to accelerate voter registration in the state.
ADR or Association for Democratic Reforms was formed almost 9 years ago by a group of academics from IIMs at Bengaluru & Ahmedabad and NID, Ahmedabad. The story of its “birth” is interesting:
It came into being with the filing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court asking for mandatory disclosure of criminal, financial and educational backgrounds of candidates contesting elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures, prior to the polls. The Delhi High Court in 2001 gave a judgment in favour of ADR and the same was challenged by the Government in the Supreme Court. Several political parties also intervened in the matter opposing the Delhi High Court’s judgment.
After a long hearing, the Supreme Court in a land mark judgment upheld the High Court Judgment and directed the Election Commission to issue orders making it mandatory for candidates contesting elections to Parliament and state assemblies to submit affidavits along with their nomination papers giving information about criminal cases pending against them, if any; financial assets of the candidate, his/her spouse and dependents; financial liabilities and educational qualifications of the candidate.
In a bid to dilute the full effect of the judgment, the Government issued an Ordinance amending the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, partially implementing only the Supreme Court directions. ADR challenged this ordinance and amendment act before the Supreme Court.
In September 2003, the Supreme Court struck down the amendment as unconstitutional and restored its earlier directions. Several State Election Commissions have also passed orders making such declarations mandatory even for Panchayat/local bodies’ elections.
ADR also conducts “Election Watch” activities throughout India, spending considerable time and effort to dig into the backgrounds of political candidates and their antecedents.
Again, I would request everyone to spend some time on their website and think how we can help and work with them.
***
I have an introduction to Prof Trolochan Sastry of IIM-Bangalore, one of the founders of ADR and I hope to speak to him in the next few days.
I do not know Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan of “Janaagraha” (who are behind the Jaago Re! movement) but if any of you know them and are willing to make an introduction, I shall be grateful…otherwise I will “cold call” them in the next few days.
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Great news.
I know a friend who works with them. Have you got in touch with them?
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090323&fname=Election+Commission+%28F%29&sid=1
No More Queues
Enrolling as a voter by filling in a form, attaching a photograph and depositing it at a drop box has been a great success in Hyderabad.
As many as 4.2 lakh voters registered through drop boxes kept in public places since October.
As many as 3.01 lakh applications were collected from boxes placed in post offices. 1.2 lakh from shopping malls and petrol stations.
1.9 lakh voter ID cards have already been delivered. The rest will be delivered by March 20.
Since the pilot project in Hyderabad has been successful, it can be tried in other parts of the country.
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I would surely like to volunteer for ADR, thnx for the info & link.
Note to Myself: Check this site: “India’s First Digital Election” (link courtesy Gaurav)
Q: How to earn Rs2.45 Crores in 5 years? A: Re-contest as an MLA from Maharashtra http://cli.gs/aT9GV3
Shantanu,
Just a thought. Why cannot all these individual modern parties that are sprouting up now – FTI, Lok Satta Party, the Professional Party of India and the 2 parties mentioned in this discussion join hands together and fight? Why should there be a split in electorate? Most of these modern parties / grouping have very similar base agendas, based on good governance for all – this time for good. If this kind of collaboration has been thought of or is already happening in the background amongst the leaders of the concerned parties that I am unaware of, then well and good.
Because in the long run for the sake of Bharat, only the unity amongst such similar parties is going to help tackle the lackasidal and dirty Congress behemoth.
This thought had been sprouting in my mind since quite some time after I read several such groupings sprouting up off late. So wanted to share it with the viewers here..
-Thanks
Vikram
@ Vikram: Easier said than done…I have been trying hard over the past few months to get to meet each one of them and impress upon them the need to work together to avoid the good vote getting split (as you have noted too). This is also the over-riding motivation behind the Hope Summit
There has been some progress but nowhere near enough…One reason is that most of these efforts involve volunteers and not full-time political activists.
Volunteers means efforts are usually local and there is no time (or the inclination) to focus on the strategic goal.
Secondly, there are still differences in ideology which are not intractable – but need a lot of intensive negotiations – and before that a relationship of trust which does not exist at the moment.
So not enough progress but I remain hopeful.