The prestigious Harvard University has selected an Indian portal called http://www.mumbaivotes.com for its research on transparency. Hollie Gilman, a doctoral student at the Harvard University Department of Government, who was in India for the purpose of research, told: “I found mumbaivotes.com to be a database of information on politicians, their work and their track record. I also found that the portal has over 100,000 visitors – who would have made an informed decision in electing their leader.”
The portal was envisaged by Vivek Gilani, 33. Launched in 2008, the portal brags of more than 4,500 news reports from 12 newspapers, tracking nearly 1,500 politicians in the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai. It also has links to more than 400 video interviews of MPs, legislators, officials of the municipal corporation and other candidates directly linked with Mumbai. Another strengths being a record the elected representatives’ attendance in the legislature, the number of questions he/she raised during the working hours as also the criminal record of any candidate.
Gilani was working for a US firm when he thought that people generally do not vote as they do not know much about the candidates. And even if they do possess some knowledge, it is mere hearsay or pure guesswork. So he started accumulating information on various politicians in the city so that he could vote for the most deserving contender.
Hollie Gilman of Harvard, who has worked for the Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s election campaigns in the past, said that making this information available to the masses is itself a great effort. As also the participation and huge number of visitors to the portal speaks volumes of its transparency and accountability.
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Aditi Rindani 