How to Revive Trust in Indian Democracy? Start with Digital Engagement

The story begins in 2022 in rural Odisha, in eastern India, where self-coined ‘Hashtag warriors’ stormed Twitter for 12 minutes every day at noon to call attention to local issues. The campaign, called 12baje12minute, highlights how Twitter emerged as the preferred digital platform in Odisha for grievance redressal since the outbreak of COVID-19. Built on community-sourced data, politicians and civil society can use digital engagement to strengthen the roots of India’s democracy and address the concerns that directly impact the people.

India has been celebrated for its successful organization of massive elections over the past 75 years. However, true democracy involves much more than just holding elections. The ‘by the people’ mentality that characterizes democracy is fading away. Recent incidents of farmer protests, the abrupt introduction of the CAA (Citizen Amendment Act, 2019), and police-led attacks on university campuses raise doubts around whether citizens feel represented by elected officials or are losing trust in their government. This trend is not unique to India: a 2021 survey in 28 countries found that government officials and politicians are the least trusted people globally. The question is whether this mistrust is a result of a mere narrative or based on credible information about governments’ failure to be accountable.

India has been labeled as an electoral autocracy by Sweden-based V Dem Institute, a conclusion that is further validated by U.S.-based non-profit Freedom House, which downgraded India from a ‘free’ to a ‘partially free’ democracy in 2021. It is difficult to measure the productivity of politicians in this system, and how accountable they are to their constituents. Every time an elected representative is charged with a criminal offense, it reduces the public’s confidence in the quality of politicians elected to govern the country. According to a study, the share of criminal politicians in Lok Sabha elections was 43% in 2019. Additionally, elected officials often fail even the most fundamental duties, like attending parliamentary sessions and participating in debates. As per the Economist, the number of days per year that the national Parliament meets has fallen from more than 100 in the 1950s to 66 in the 2014-19 term. The United States Congress, by comparison, is typically in session for more than 160 days a year. During the 2023 winter session, 143 members of parliament (MPs) from the opposition were suspended, and a prominent Congress (opposition) MP Shashi Tharoor said, “Unfortunately, we have to start writing obituaries for parliamentary democracy in India.” 

In a democracy, there are two key aspects to political accountability: first, the ability of people to question the government, and second, documentation of answers from the government available to the general audience.  In India, besides a few state-level attempts, the only national-level grievance redressal is the Right to Information Act (RTI). The portal under the RTI Act requires payment for processing requests, has no feedback mechanism, and needs a significant amount of identifying information, making it inaccessible to a large part of the illiterate population. Moreover, the responses are provided through physical mail and email, neglecting any provision for public access. Other mediums at the state level have high opportunity costs: in-person submissions at government offices and a complete lack of anonymity. A potential solution is to make these discourses digitally public through a platform that is accessible, centralized, and public. Moreover, this would provide a pressure-free, anonymous way to register grievances to facilitate accountability for governments by opening up a channel to resolve information asymmetry between citizens and their local government through data and digitization. Voters need space to raise questions on everyday concerns, to build on action taken on their concerns, and to choose candidates that represent them better and have fulfilling outcomes. I hypothesize that if citizens better understand the day-to-day progress of their local government, they will be empowered to make more informed voting decisions and hold their government accountable. Conversely, if local governments have contextual insights into what areas of a citizen’s welfare require greater attention, they would be able to address these issues more efficiently. 

We can visualize a national-level digital platform beyond existing social media that allows citizens to raise tickets for local government bodies to be resolved with credible action. Creating a digital trail of information on the measurable impact generated through the representative’s tenure would provide room for more strategic voting during elections and higher turnouts to elect more representative and high-quality politicians. Through a crowd-sourcing mechanism, there is space for higher accountability as local representation is under their voting group’s eye. For politicians, the portal acts as documentation of progress made on their goals, which they can cite for future elections. For budding politicians, this can be the space where they highlight community involvement and gather insights on true concerns. We have seen evidence of higher voter turnouts being linked with an increased share of welfare spending in Brazil, which is a key challenge for growing economic disparity in India as well. Current research has shown that political communication such as candidate debates can enhance political knowledge and participation of voters as well as government accountability. In the context of rural India, field experiments have found that knowledge interventions such as political report cards, radio campaigns, and messenger applications are effective instruments for holding politicians accountable. 

Designing this digital platform would not come without challenges. While people are becoming more accepting of digital tools, deploying a national resource like this would require increased investment in digital literacy training. Digital platforms have also been used as tools of polarization, and any such models will have to be resilient against digital fraud and protect anonymity to allow freedom of expression. The Indian government would also have to invest more in its digital infrastructure, which lags compared to that of the private sector. One promising move in this direction is the Odisha government adopting a 5T model to ensure a tech-enabled governance reform system. The 5T guidelines —teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation, and time limit—mandate that the relevant government agency act on issues within 24 hours of a tweet to ensure a tech-enabled governance reform system. 

This move by the Odisha government shows that there is space for innovation to build platforms in India that help citizens engage better with their local governments and develop trust in elected officials. We need to create, support, fund, and mobilize such platforms that promote these informational channels for political discourse.