Ministers using Twitter to govern, what about offline India?

Your MTNL landline is dead and the broadband speed is down. There has been no water supply in your area for three consecutive days this summer. Power supply has been erratic with frequent load-shedding - almost each evening - in your locality.

You are in the midst of an emergency and haven't been able to book your train ticket through the IRCTC website. MCD hasn't come to collect garbage for a week. What do you do?

Ideally, you should pick up your phone and either dial the "Customer Helpline" number mentioned on the respective department’s website, or register a complaint online.

What do you actually do? Tweet to the minister. 

Yes, there are more chances of your issue being addressed if you indulge in the latter rather than spend the same amount of time registering a complaint through the institutional mechanism.

Storytelling is key to this option. What are the contents of your "tweet", can it be resolved through the discretionary whim of the minister, and most importantly, will a reply to your tweet by the minister make him a "Twitter Tarzan"? You read it right.

Twitter ministers can project themselves as superheroes with a few punches on their keyboards, more often than not aided by their cronies. This direct "hands-on" governance approach may appear new-age and cool, and there is "nothing official about it".

An RTI query seeking details of complaints and their redressal through Twitter will get you the standard "information is not part of government records" response. 

I am an advocate of new media, almost addicted to it, so much so that my friends suggest I visit a rehab. I still believe that, as an idea, it is good to have new media play a role in governance, for transparency, better outreach and communication, and connecting the youth with governance.

It is a good and "empowering" feeling to stick a note on the minister's Twitter notice board and get noticed.

But it’s counterproductive.

The majority of India's population is not on Twitter, and this comprises the poorest, the disenfranchised and the marginalised. For instance, take the case of a one-and-half-year-old child, who fell ill onboard Sabarmati Express. Desperate parents couldn’t find any help on the train and therefore thought of tweeting to Suresh Prabhu, the railway minister. Within minutes, the parents get a reply and, shortly, the ailing child receives medical attention and even a visit by the region's DRM.

The child is saved, the minister gets several congratulatory tweets and retweets.

It was a prompt solution, but did it address the larger problem - that the railways faces a lack of medical attention? Was she the only unwell passenger on board - in need of aid - in the entire railways network that day? No.

Isn’t governance about the minister solving a systemic problem rather than an individual case?

In another instance, on November 26, 2015, a woman passenger was reportedly harassed by a fellow passenger. In distress, she tweeted to the ministry of railways and asked for help. Within minutes, she had someone from the ministry respond and send assistance.

Indeed, Namrata found help and it's good the ministry was prompt. But was she the only one facing harassment aboard an Indian Railways train. Shouldn’t the solution be better policing rather than the tweet recourse? 

On further introspection, the Twitter ministers will realise their approach only caters to a handful of people and is "exclusive" to a select club of web-savvy citizens.

It is elitist and non-inclusive. Moreover, one may wonder if the minister needs to be spending time on larger issues of governance such as policy formulation and implementation and strengthening institutions that deliver.

This populist type of "micro-governance" projects them in poor light. Moreover, it weakens the institutions and its public redressal mechanism. In a country of more than a billion people, "Twitter Happy" can't be a sustainable solution.

Responding to 10 or a 100 complaints a day on Twitter and posturing oneself as a new-age, progressive, responsible and responsive minister is a farce. 

One does need to acknowledge that citizen action and civic mobilisation has reached another level due to social media. A change.org petition does create an impact, and Facebook campaign does have cognisance value.

But the question is whether it comes at the cost of traditional and public systems of democracy and governance.

Perhaps, more often than not, it does. Mr Twitter Tarzan Minister – you would be well advised to look at the "official" complaints register. For governance to be "inclusive" and "widely available", institutions need to be the focus.

Micro-blogging will only lead to micro-governance.