Citizen’s Committee

I had heard Captain Gopinath talk about forming a Citizen’s Committee, a platform that will genuinely represent the frustrations and aspirations of people and deliver real time results. I took in the whole thing with a pinch of salt and assumed that this idea would never see the light of day and would get shelved like all the promises political leaders make do.

Bangalore's first Citizen Committee addressed by Capt.Gopinath

I was taken aback when I read about the Citizen’s Committee formation meet. I went for the meet armed with questions I am sure everybody had about the committee, its functionality and its structure. The forum was christened KITES – Knitting Indians Together for an Empowered Society. The meet was held to address some of the key concerns and questions of people regarding the forum.

1. Can ordinary people participate? How will the forum entice them to?
2. What will be the issues?
3. How will the issues and decisions make a difference at a political level?
4. Who will lead the committee?

These were some of the concerns I was looking at also and they were all addressed.

The committee would comprise of people from all walks of life. This wasn’t going to be one of those forums that included people who were just in the ‘who is who’ list. Business people, IT people, Advocates, Agriculturalist, Home-makers; the member list would be wide and represent people across all pockets, communities, caste and creed.

The issues that would be dealt with will range from local to state to national to global concerns and not limit itself to just a corner. In order to deal with such a huge framework of concerns the committee will have pockets of people tackling different sorts of issues; a proper division of labor.

Captain Gopinath was very clear when he said that this committee would be a decision support system for him to effectively represent the citizens. So there would not be just one leader, but it would function in a way where there would be multiple leaders so that all points of views are fairly represented.

The advantage of KITES would be that if elected, the Captain would be able to put forth Bills that are formed based on people’s concerns and issues at a government level. Another point that was raised that I found interesting was that people’s interest would only be caught if the issues dealt with are ones close to their hearts. And with such a wide range of members, a lot of issues would be covered. The Captain also made it clear that there would be a lot of people not on the committee, but who also needed a chance of being represented accurately. For this, the committee would reach out and find out the issues of these people and voice them at meetings.

The basic structure and functioning of the committee got established here at the meet. I understood the Captain’s point when he said that the actual functioning of it was still steps away, but at least the process was underway. Also visit his website www.votecaptaingopi.com for more details on the Citizen’s Committee.

People, this is a wonderful opportunity for all of us. We really need to step up and make sure it runs the way we want it. What are your thoughts and comments on it?

There is a Plan of Action meet being held at the Captain’s Campaign Office at 6 Pm today to put into place and strengthen the structure of the committee further. More questions will be answered there today regarding the committee.

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