Imperatives of citizen-centric Web 2.0 political networks for an effective democracy

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: Though both the government of India and governments of the federal states have set up official websites for their respective ministries, these websites are hardly informative and are not very reflective of any interaction with the public through the internet Nor do these websites percolate down to the rural segments of India through the district headquarters to allow the public and the governments to interface on the issues of concern, particularly corruption, which is one of the chief reasons for the slowdown of development at the grassroots level in India. This study, one of the first to examine Indian official websites, uses multiple methods of inquiry: observation and analysis against the backdrop of Nielsen's ‘usability diagnostics’ as a standard parameter for the construction of websites (Web 2.0); co-relating this with ‘uses and gratification theory’; and qualitatively analysing four South Indian states’ official websites. In doing so, it identifies several ‘grey areas’ that are weakening democratic processes and deliverance in India. The study notes that the politicians and other elected representatives who used these websites as information flow channels during the elections rendered them defunct after the elections. The study also notes the conspicuous absence of interactivity, lack of application of both vernacular language and English as mediums of communication, and non-provision of features such as live chat, blogs, Facebook and Twitter between citizens and elected representatives, arguing that this is anathema to the free market economy and democratisation. It is further argued that conversion of these websites to social networking sites may help expose the ever-increasing corruption and criminalisation of politics, and that such a ‘citizen movement’ through these Web 2.0 sites would allow the poor to participate in the democratic processes from the bottom up and ensure transparency in a free market economy.