The lockdown declared by PM Narendra Modi was barely three-days-old when I saw a tweet directed at me by a Malad, Mumbai resident on March 24th. Virali Modi had taken to the microblogging site to say she is disabled and lives by herself in Mumbai. She had said: “I need my maid who cooks and does other physiological care for me. Due to the virus, she won’t be able to come. What do we do about these situations?"
Something about her innate trust in the way she had reached out touched me deeply and I got my office to reach out to the Malad police station to make sure that Virali gets all the help she needed. Less than an hour later a posse of cops arrived at her door to help address her concerns. Two hours later Virali was back on Twitter. This time she thanked the police department and me for giving a letter to her maid and driver, so they don’t get stuck at police checkpoints during the lockdown.
All of this happened in less than five hours. I was quite taken by how the system can and will work if tapped properly. It also seemed to work faster than phones, emails or the time-tested snail mail routes. What made it special was the addition of a personal touch and the directness which the other routes simply don't offer.
I was hooked. An increase in such personal responses has seemed to result in more and more people reaching out. Several want e-passes for travel due to a medical emergency, police intervention in a law-and-order situation, help when stranded (it is very touching when people stuck in Liberia expect one to intervene to get them back though one is only the Home Minister of one state) and others have made suggestions about processes.
Many ask me about how I make time for responding on social media to so many people. I don't feel I'm doing anything extraordinary. I am only living up to the trust the electorate, my party leadership and the government has reposed in me and see my responses as the dispensation of the same official responsibility as a cabinet minister. Also think of the immense benefits to the citizens who are finding redressal without having to risk travel/exposure in these times when we are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a way, this could be linked to my own journey with phones and technology. I was raised in an era when phones were still a luxury. I distinctly remember we had one with a rotary dial which would be used sparingly to book trunk calls and these would get connected at weird hours. From there to having the internet at one's fingertips has been quite life-changing. In fact, it seems hard to believe that the first handphone was invented only a little less than 50 years ago. Today’s millennials might even find it strange to think of a time when mobile phones didn’t exist as today, our smartphones are essentially almost an extension of us.
When we leave home without our cellphones, it suddenly feels like we’re missing a limb or we’ve been cut off from life and its happenings. And why not? Thanks to affordable and fast internet a mere touch of the screen helps us find anything using search engines like Google. We can now connect, comment, elicit, responses, chat, transact and more using our cellphones.
Though it took me a while to get used to technology, today I am glad I did. As the Home Minister of Maharashtra, I realise that better, improved and quicker access is key to improving the service delivery system and bettering the government-people interface. It reaffirms the faith of the citizenry in the system and its capability to deliver.
And it has also helped me be in direct touch not only with the citizenry but the extended 2.25 lakh strong police family which I head. Barely a week ago, when I learnt that the daughter of driver Syed Zaheer Ahmed who is with the police department in Nanded, had cleared her MPSC exams and got selected as Assistant Sales Tax Commissioner, I reached out to both him and his daughter Asma on phone to congratulate them. The response we got to this interaction going online across all my social media accounts was tumultuous. Everybody then also joined in to congratulate her.
You might wonder how I react to trolls. Well, I just don't react. I'm not saying I'm superhuman and will not err. I'm reminded here of the adage: 'The difficult we do immediately, it is the impossible that takes time.' But there will be people who are unhappy about the latter and within their rights to complain. But when I see motivated abusive negativity being hurled, I simply do not respond. It just unnecessarily gives oxygen of publicity to such elements who feel further emboldened. There is a lot of positive stuff waiting to be done. I'd rather engage my energies there.
So next time you are online let's connect!
The writer is the Home Minister of Maharashtra.
