Now, rate your ‘Neta’: Pranab Mukherjee, Arvind Kejriwal launch app that lets you rate political representatives

Former President Pranab Mukherjee and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an app called ‘Neta’ on Friday that allows voters to rate and review their political representatives. Mukherjee called this app developed by a 27-year-old entrepreneur Pratham Mittal, a ‘milestone’ in making Indian democracy ‘more participative’. “A good democracy cannot work without informed voters, good leaders and complete transparency and accountability,” he said while speaking at the launch event.

The app was launched at Mukherjee’s official residence at Rajaji Marg and the event was attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Chief Election Commissioners S Y Quraishi and Nasim Zaidi, former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, former Home Minister Shivraj Patil, and MoS Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla.

The former President said that feedback from people is of critical importance as it gives an opportunity for empirical evidence of gauging public mood and doing a course correction. The app aims to create a deep impact on the political engagement in the country.

Apart from letting the users rate their MLAs and MPs, the app serves as a useful barometer to gauge voter sentiment at any given point of time, across each constituency. It also provides a chance for political leaders to showcase their popularity and catch the attention of political parties.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said the app would help people vote beyond “caste and religion”.

“In a democracy like ours, there are many people who are unable to meet their representatives due to the size and scale involved. In such an atmosphere, this app will be able to offer voter feedback to representatives on their performance. It will also help parties gauge the performance of their leaders and help them decide which candidates to offer tickets to,” he added.