Question Hour

These interactions were held on Google Plus Hangout with questions by Our Say,an Australian web-based intiative for citizen-politician engagement,which was launched in India over four months ago. “On the site,www.outsay.org,people post questions to ministers or corporate leaders and we guarantee that the top three questions with the most votes gets answered by the politician or the corporate leader concerned,” says Gautam Raju,28,co-founder of Our Say. Unlike Twitter or Facebook,where a leader may receive thousands of comments,Our Say highlights issues that affect a large number of viewers who show their support through votes.

The platform’s latest initiative is called “If I Were a Neta” and works on the premise,“What issues would you address if you were a neta?” This forum,started a month ago,has received around 7,000 responses and the last date has been extended by a week. Raju says that the process of the winners asking questions from the ministers will be filmed into a short documentary. “We wanted young people to think about issues and ask themselves that if they could make a change,what would it be,” says Raju. One of the participants wants to “restore faith in the public system,a system in which sadly,most of our netas have lost faith in”. Another talks about “better impact studies to avoid natural disasters catalysed by human intervention with the eco-system”. A popular entry is “If I were a neta,I would do my best to inspire more youth to engage with politics”.

The positive response hasn’t come only from the people. “The ministers,Deora and Tharoor,were approachable and easy to work with,” says Raju,a former policy advisor at the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria,Australia,who moved to Delhi last year.

In Australia,where the initiative was launched three years ago,Our Say caught the imagination of the people. Among the organisation’s high points was when Adam Bandt,an MP,directly asked the (former) Australian Prime Minister,Julia Gillard,a question about euthanasia. Our Say,India,is still building its presence through collaborations with youth organisations such as Youth ki Awaaz and The Alternative. “After all,India is a country with a billion people,” says Raju.