Hanging out

On Monday,in a first,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will hangout on Google Googles social network to take questions from the public on his budget. As experiments in digital democracy go,however,Chidambaram is not the first Indian politician to embrace the townhall format. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi last year held a hangout centred on Swami Vivekanandas work. Indeed,Modi has leveraged new media to great and greater effect,projecting himself at rallies in 3D,in the normal two dimensions at an American university he is not allowed to visit for lack of a visa,or on Twitter.

The BJP has a formidable headstart in harnessing the internet for its political needs. Its first IT cells were formed way back in 1996,and it was running an online election campaign in 2004. In 2009,the BJP attempted to take a page from the Barack Obama playbook and targeted urban voters through ads on social networking sites and regularly updated websites. Many of its leaders have since taken to Twitter. Meanwhile,the political rights army of online volunteers uses the social media megaphone to make its views known instantly. The Congress appears leaden in contrast to the fleet-footed responses of its rival,and it hasnt done itself any favours with its reactionary calls to censor parts of the internet.

In fact,the Congresss belated,stumbling attempts to use social media only highlight its discomfort with talking to the public or with the democratic imperative of public reason. The medium may have changed,but the message is still the same.