Anurag Jain's Blog on Bangalore Events, Travel, IIM Bangalore, IIM, IIMB, Management

Monday, April 19, 2004

Posted 8:24 AM by Anurag

Web as Indian elections' sub-battleground: Are you kidding me?

Even as BJP is targeting urban middle class with its India Shining (site disabled) campaign, Congress seems to be taking its age-old, time-tested path of appealing to the 'common man' as is evident in its Elections 2004 slogan: "Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath".

So far, so good. My only problem is that Congress seems to be taking Aam aadmi thing too literally. I mean, come on, there is just no 'official' information available on the web on the Indian National Congress, a party that has mostly (barring last decade or so) ruled independent India. How come there's no info on such party on the Net? Oh no, wait a minute, there is an INC official website. Pray, why doesn't it open? Why does it list only directory contents? What did you say, you wanted a copy of INC manifesto? Are you mad? Can't you see there is not even a single IT professional with the Congress to take care of the official website itself. How on earth do you expect them to spare time to upload manifesto for elitist pigs like you?

Say, here's an idea. Why dont you ask Sonia Gandhi for a copy of election manifesto? Lo kal-lo baat, as Amitabh would say in Namak Halal (I thinK). Dont understand what I mean? Just take a look at Soniaji's official website and you'd know just what I mean. I mean, heck, the latest news on the official site of INC president is that she is to visit USA in June 2001!

On the other hand, look at BJP's election web machine: BJP maintains its website and keeps it updated. Okay, okay its not a fantabulous site, but hey at least its functional in nature. And hey lookie, lookie, it even provides a copy of election manifesto (or here) ! Moreover, BJP even has regional sites: BJP Haryana and BJP Gujarat for example!!

For all my liking of Congress and for all my disliking of BJP's charade called India Shining, I just can not appreciate Congress' mind-numbing lack of communication on the Internet. Apparently, the party itself is hell-bent on giving away the IT revolution credit to the BJP, while fully knowing who really laid the foundations of the current IT industry! The party has got to realize that a good number of 'aam junta' too accesses the Net today! Heck, I do.

Update at 3pm: A friend pointed out (Thanks Ruhi!) that there is a working Congress website. Seeing the content depth, I sure am impressed! Congress da jawab nahi. Then I also found out about their mouth-piece Sandesh. Now, only if they could do a better job with Search Engine Optimization!

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