Name- Saahas Ramaul

Registration Number- 11807609

Subject- Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Course Code- MGN569
Respected Faculty- Madam Tanya Nagpal
 Digital Democracy
Introduction
Democratic institutions today look much as they have done for decades, if not centuries. The Houses
of Parliament, the US Congress, and some of the West’s oldest parliaments are largely untouched by
successive waves of new technology. We still live in a world where debates require speakers to be
physically present, there is little use of digital information and data sharing during parliamentary
sessions, and where UK MPs vote by walking through corridors. The UK Parliament building in
particular is conspicuous for the absence of screens, good internet connectivity and the other IT
infrastructure which would enable a 21st century working environment comparable to the offices of
almost any modern business. At the same time almost every other sphere of life - finance, tourism,
shopping, work and our social relationships - has been dramatically transformed by the rise of new
information and communication tools, particularly social media or by the opportunities opened
through increased access to and use of data, or novel approaches to solving problems, such as via
crowdsourcing or the rise of the sharing economy. Many argue that this gap between the way in
which citizens go about their daily lives and the way in which politics and democracy are carried out
is one of many factors that has contributed to declining trust and confidence in democratic
institutions.
Large minorities in the US and Europe no longer see democracy as a good system of government,
particularly young people. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index in 2014
and 2015, not only are participation rates low, but the highest levels of disengagement have occurred
in 16 out of the 20 countries classified as ‘full democracies’.1 In response many have argued that
digital technologies are the answer, and that they alone can encourage greater participation, better
decisions, and more trust.
The advocates claim that digital democracy can achieve deeper and broader participation, that it can
contribute to a richer public sphere for argument and debate than was ever possible with traditional
mass media; and that tapping into more individual sources of expertise can achieve better decisions
than relying only on professional politicians and civil servants. Over the last two decades there have
been thousands of experiments. In some areas, such as campaigning or monitoring the actions of MPs,
there is a rich field of innovation, with myriad apps, platforms and websites gaining significant
numbers of users. Petitions sites, for example, can be found across much of the world in one form or
another. Other experiments have focused on areas such as participatory budgeting, opening up the
problem-solving process for a range of social issues, to a focus on how digital can enhance the more
traditional activities of parliamentary and democratic work, such as voting or case management.

Digital Democracy In India

Well indeed no one can debate over the nomothetic and renowned fact of India being the
largest and the most complex democracy in the world, starting from its constitution to the
CAAG that India has commandeered from 5 countries to the total number of parties being
2599, with 8 national parties 53 state parties and 2538 unrecognised parties. So India has a lot
to offer when it comes to its digital democracy. Down in the report, there is a picture of the
beautiful mess which can be termed as an oxymoron, or perhaps India being a paradoxical
country, in relation to it elections. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an
enabler of implementing e-Governance projects in India. e-Governance is the interaction
between the citizens and government in a digital manner enabling transparency, faster data
availability and participation of citizens in the activities of Government. India being a
democratic, sovereign nation has implemented various e-Governance projects. While moving
towards e-Democracy that is enabling citizens to vote online during elections, knowing the
candidates prior to the voting process, citizen participation in Government decisions, we face
plenty of challenges at the implementation stage. The current study is a secondary research
done by analysing the various e-Democracy projects across the globe. The opportunities and
challenges faced by various nations are assessed and suggestions are being provided for one
of the largest democracies in the world for the successful implementation of e-Democracy for
better citizen participation.

Digital Democracy For Congress

The party had spent more than Rs 200 crore on their social media
campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.
The social media budget for the party has gone up by at least 10 times against that of 2014
elections. There are places in the country where there isn’t adequate water supply but there is
internet. The party doesn’t want to lose out on any of these voters.
The Congress has chosen three companies Niksun, Silver Push and Design Boxed to run its
media, outdoor and social media campaign. As per latest development, Percept has also been
added to the list. According to experts, social media is the most important campaign tool this
election season. Naval Seth, Deputy Head at Emkay Global, says, “Social media as a medium
has changed a lot since 2014. The battle on social media has gone a lot bigger because the
medium has the strength to create more involvement in shorter span of time. Hence, it only
makes sense for any party to invest in it.” According to Adhvith Dhuddu, CEO of creative ad
tech agency AliveNow, all major political parties are spending massively on social media
given the deeper reach and influence of these platforms. “Another huge reason for the
importance of social media is that these platforms have an advantage that TV doesn't, which
is setting the narrative and spreading the message,” he added. Dhuddu says that it is not just
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that are important. WhatsApp, ShareChat and TikTok are
some other platforms that are quite important.
Now this makes very clear that congress is prima facie when it comes to up its game in the
forte of social media campaigns. But there are a certain Ministers like Dr. Shashi Tharoor
whose social media presence matters a great deal when it comes to elections. Now the report
further mentions various aspects of his social media presence according to the research.

Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, writer and a former international
diplomat who is currently serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He was formerly Under-Secretary General of the
United Nations, and contested for the post of Secretary-General in 2006.

He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information

Technology and All India Professionals Congress. He formerly served as Chairman of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs (2014 to 2019). In 2019, Shashi
Tharoor received the Sahitya Academy Award for his book 'An Era of Darkness' in a non-
fiction category in English language. So, the ramification is that his social media presence is
very different than other politicians.

Identification of Ethical Values

Digital ethics is the field of study concerned with the way technology is shaping and will
shape our political, social, and moral existence.
 Improved Government decisions
 Increased citizen trust in Government
 Increased government accountability and transparency
 Ability to accommodate the public will in the information age
  To effectively involve stakeholders, including NGOs, business and interested citizen
in new ways of meeting public challenges.

Shashi Tharoor, a typical highbrow Stephenian (or how alumni of St. Stephen’s College
consider themselves), has joined Indian politics in 2009 after losing an election the post of
UN Secretary General to South Korean Ban Ki-moon, and since then he has been in news for
wrong reasons, and his statements (official and unofficial) have been pasted all over social
media. In this election season, he is maintaining a comparatively a low profile, yet his stature
demands an analysis of his social media activities.

Campaigning
Facebook has become an obligatory social media platform to be in, even if it does not suit the
purpose, and even when there is no use of it. After Yogendra Yadav, Shashi Tharoor happens
to be the second politician whose Facebook wall is mostly filled with content tweeted from
his official twitter account. Screenshots of two tweets are examples of that. This also reflects
in the size of his Facebook Fans (180,000 fans), which reflects merely a faintest shadow of
his twitter following, and which may not be as big as some other leaders, but the size of the
fan base is decent enough
But it is not all twitter content that Tharoor shares on his Facebook wall. There are quite of
few Facebook exclusive content as well, which are posted to drive home the message about
his candidacy and political activities. Posts are more everyday affair. Nothing is exciting to
keep people engaged, for which Tharoor is known.
Despite the fact that updates on Facebook wall of the studied Congress leader are mere
duplicates of his tweets, engagement has not been completely cipher (see the first image),
though it appears so when seen in the context, i.e., vis-à-vis other politicians (see the second
image).

Shashi Tharoor on Twitter

Tharoor is one of the most active politicians on twitter. From his “cattle class” remark to
Gandhi Jayanti controversy to his purportedly twitter-born-or-led love affair with Pakistani
journalist Mehr Tarar, tweets posted by and on Tharoor’s twitter account has kept Twitteratti
agog, which perhaps is the reason behind 21.4 lakhs people following the outgoing UPA-
government’s minister of state minister, HRD, on twitter, which makes his follower-base one
of the largest in the segment.
Twitter, as is the case with other politician, is the platform of choice of Shashi Tharoor as
well to disseminate his political message. It also played an important role in his political
campaign as well as in keeping its followers posted on things related to his political
campaign. And it appeared, upon scanning, that his timeline is just a shadow of its formally
glorious self, also in terms of raking controversies.

 
But it is not all controversial on Twitter. And it is not even all political. He uses twitter also
to tweet about things other than politics like Pongola of the Karikakkom Chamundi kshetram
and his published article, which gives more human touch to his twitter stream. This does
reflect in the way he is mentioned in various twitter conversations (see the image below)
But as this is an election season, the things that media wrote about the outgoing UPA-
government’s minister of state minister, HRD are mostly concerned with the election, as you
can see in the following image, but not all things said are positive. In fact, almost all the
sentiment expressed in the news items on Shashi Tharoor is either neutral or negative, as you
can see in the second image below.

There is a very little positivity going around about Mr. Tharoor, partly because of his
controversial characters and partly because of things that have happened in his personal life.
And the flow of negative emotion can also be due to the failure of UPA2. The media seems
skewed towards neutrality in his case, or at least, it seems moving towards that . Can it
because of his effort to maintain a low profile after a sudden demise of his third wife,
Sunanda Pushkar—the name which appeared strongly in the above posted word cloud.
So here we can fathom that Dr. Tharoor goes into the following directions of following the
ethical practises of Digital Democracy, A)He goes all neutral on social media platforms. B)
He maintains a low profile image though he being ravishingly rich and high class life. C)He
attracts the youth with his classy tweets and posts. The reason why youth is attracted to him is
only because of the relativity factor with him. Now this all has led to him being the Member
of Parliament for the third time from his constituency. His social media campaigns have
proved to be very effective and ardent with a lot of engagement ratio as compared to other
politicians.

Conclusion
Some suggestions that may be followed.
 All public meetings online should be announced in a systematic and reliable
manner using Internet.
 Information about accountability should be clearly given in the portal with the
purpose and mission of the program. Citizens should have access to genuine, real time
access to data.
 Comment forums, online surveys, citizen focus groups are required to garner the input
required to be a responsive e-government.
 It is wise to invest in elected officials’ voice through technology as it echoes the
voice of the people.
 Virtual committee rooms and public hearings can be organized through Internet.
The most sustainable e-democracy activities will be those incorporated into existing
and legitimate governance processes.
 Communication should be two-way. Tools should be developed which would respond
to emails in an effective and timely manner.
 Government sponsored online consultations are needed to allow people to become
educated on public policy issues and interact with relevant authorities.
 Elected officials should be educated on the use of Internet in their work
culture. Technologically empowering them is essential for successful e-Democracy.
Conclusion e-Democracy tries to stage in the historical evolution of the democratic
experiment that interactive technologies can play a role in the governance process. e-
Democracy could be a supplement to the current existing models. It is all about how
governments utilise digital opportunities that surround them and taking care of the digital
expectations of an increasingly online generation. e-Democracy would be successful in the
long run only if there is a strong buy in from political and administrative actors. It is not just
about giving an identity card to the citizens which is central to the future of e-democracy but
linking it to e-consultation and e-voting.

References
Author- Adam Henshall. Effect of providing information about what is digital ethics [Online]
published on- 24th September 2018, link to the website, accessed on- 24th March 2020.
Author- Unknown. Effect of providing information about Dr. Shashi Tharoor. [Online]
published on Unknown, link to the website, accessed on- 22nd March 2020.
Author- Mark Graham. Effect of providing information about digital democarcy- introduction
[Online] published on Unknown, link to the website, accessed on- 20th March 2020.