Last week, a petition asking BBC to hold back its proposal to close down two digital radio stations went online. Actress Shilpa Shetty is on it too. With activism taking to the Internet, we found out what happens after you hit that "I sign up" button
Last week, a petition asking BBC to hold back its proposal to close down two digital radio stations went online. Actress Shilpa Shetty is on it too. With activism taking to the Internet, we found out what happens after you hit that "I sign up" buttonu00a0
What: In September 2009, Vishal Dadlani, one half of music composer duo Vishal-Shekhar, launched a petition against the proposed construction of a Shivaji statue in the middle of the Arabian Sea at a cost of Rs 350 crore.
Sign up on: www.smallchange.in
WHY IT WENT ONLINE: "I didn't want my lack of time to be the reason why I couldn't reach out to people. I have about 22,000 followers on Twitter today. Putting the petition online was just a way of harnessing those numbers," he says. "The Internet is an important participant in citizen activism because even if you just clicked on a link and signed a petition out of sheer boredom or laziness, you took a moment to read up on the issue and that in itself makes a difference and contributes to change."
WHERE DOES PROGRESS STAND? The petition has received 23,000 signatures. Dadlani has filed nine RTI applications to enquire about the status of the statue's construction. "No one seems to know anything about it, and there are no details of any tenders or architects, which has led me to the comforting discovery that public money may not be wasted after all and no such statue is actually going to be built -- it was just an election promise. Before filing it as a PIL though, I'm making sure I'm armed with information and have the best legal minds backing me, so I'm still following up."
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What: Zubin Driver, founder, Fight-back, an NGO that raises awareness on gender issues, sent a petition to the Indian Law Commission to ask for a change in antiquated rape laws. This petition was also uploaded online.
Sign up on: www.fight-back.net
WHY IT WENT ONLINE: "To be honest,
I think an online petition can only work as an aggregator of people's reactions, and to galvanise public opinion on one forum.
I like to be realistic about these things.
It doesn't really have any judicial standing. Sending someone a million emails may or may not work. But it does have its uses. It adds numbers and underlines the issue that needs to be addressed. I think the real fun starts 10 years later, when I imagine that technology and power structures will converge in a way that will help us to hook up such petitions into a legal system."
WHERE DOES PROGRESS STAND? "I want to do three things -- build a community of lawyers committed to the cause, get key politicians involved and then migrate it into the parliamentary system," says Driver. "So far, we've been lobbying with top lawyers in Delhi to get someone from the Supreme Court involved. We need
to find sympathisers in the judiciary who can push this at the highest levels.
In the US, lobbying is a legitimate way of getting things done, and here, we're trying to lobby so that the law commission defines our cause and takes it to Parliament as a full-fledged case for asking for a change in the law."
What: Greenpeace India floated petitions against the undemocratic introduction of genetically modified foods, specifically the BT Brinjal, starting October 2009.
A number of these were addressed to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, and every time a person signed up, a mail reached his official email id.
Sign up on: www.greenpeace.in
WHY IT WENT ONLINE: "For one, there's the annoyance factor. When your inbox gets flooded with emails and you see the sheer number of agitated people, you take them seriously. Secondly, you reach out to a large number of people at a low cost. So the Internet helps to create awareness and take concrete action on an issue," explains Avijit Michael, Online Campaigner, Greenpeace India.
WHERE DOES PROGRESS STAND? After the online campaign, Ramesh announced that BT Brinjals would not be introduced before public consultations were held in seven cities. "This was a really big deal, because the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is an autonomous body and Mr Ramesh did not have to hold public consultations. But he succumbed to the pressure of approximately 25,000 emails and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) announced it would issue a moratorium on the commercial cultivation of BT Brinjal," says Michael.
The common Joes who signed up Rashmi Deshpande, writer: "When I heard that Greenpeace would do the ground work for me if I signed a petition against introducing BT Brinjal, I decided that the easiest way to show support was to sign it. Greenpeace has sent regular updates on the progress. Not everybody has time to go sloganeering."
Ragini Letititia Singh, communications officer, WWF India: "I've signed two Save the Tiger petitions and the Greenpeace petition against BT Brinjal. I haven't followed up, but I sign these petitions in the hope that someone armed with more know-how and contacts than me will be able to do something."
Swati Ali, TV producer: "I signed up for Vishal Dadlani's petition to file a PIL against the Shivaji statue because I felt strongly that it was a total waste of public money. I haven't followed up on it since, though."
Mobile activism
The high-profile murder of Delhi model Jessica Lal, even as she served drinks as a celebrity bartender at a party in 1996 was one of the cases where public outrcry and a much publicised SMS campaign ensured that the accused were brought to book. In 2006, after a seven-year-trial, all those accused in her murder were acquitted. But public pressure and an SMS campaign that followed ensured that Manu Sharma was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her in December 2006
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