"Do we hate Politicians?" and other FAQs

Q. Are you against politicians/politics?
A. No. Of course not. A politician, rather, an elected representative (ER) to us is much like a civil surgeon or a top scientist at ISRO -- a public servant -- someone whom the people have chosen to perform a very specific duty. Our aim is to a) identify and appreciate those ERs who are fulfilling the promises they made to us, and b) to encourage other ERs to do so.

Q. Which "wing" are you people? Left, center-left, center, center-right, or right?
A. To paraphrase Barack Obama's inaugural address -- "The question is not whether right- or left-wing leaders are better. The question is whether our elected representatives are delivering on their promises." The team of neverforget comes from various political leanings, but with one common goal -- that evaluatable promises [by the politicians], and verifiable references [by anyone posting content] will go a long way in ensuring that the promises on which we elect our leaders will be fulfilled, and that is all that matters. We can disagree on topics, but are not disagreeable.

Q. How will it help at the Gram Panchayat level?
or
Q. Does it make more sense to take a centrist approach vs. a regional/local one? Which is more actionable?
A. We go at whichever grain the volunteers are interested in. You want to track the central cabinet, go ahead and collect their Common minimum program. You want to track your local sarpanch? go do that! We work at all levels, and we will put you in touch with other volunteers who have a focus like you.

Q. Who will do the groundwork?
A. We all will! The idea is for us to specify which location we care about (hometown, worktown, anytown), and which role we want to play (collect data, publish data, write articles, etc). The assumption, of course, is that someone cares about your location, at least you :-).

Q. Will we be/Why are we Rating a politician?
A. No. Well, not as a person, and not in a summary sense. Our stated vision is to only track the list of promises the ER made when he/she was elected, and report on the status of those promises. Nothing more, nothing less.

Q. I do not live in India, but am passionate about this cause. How can I help?
A. No worries. 25% of the initial core team of NeverForget did not live in India :-). There are many ways:

Do you have friends/family in India? Spread the word among them and get them excited.
Help in looking up data on the promises of the ER from your hometown. We got the list of promises of Mr. Kalmadi, the MP from Pune, using google searches.
Translate the site. We have 18 official languages. How about using your skills in your native language for making the site accessible to all?
Be a writer/editor. Think you have what it takes to read claims and see if they are verifiable or not, and then write articles on them? [good niche area for all grad students ;-) ]
Help the site be faster/more usable. Know PHP, AJAX, HTML, CSS, Photoshop? then let us know.
... and many more.

Q. Why not get a list of resolutions passed in Lok Sabha etc. & put them up? Make it Govt. Level & not personal level.
A. We have no restriction on the "level" which NeverForget will track. For us, the central government is an "elected representative" answerable to the people of India based on their common-minimum-program etc, much like an MP is answerable to the voters in his/her constituency based on the promises made during campaigning.

Q. Will personal safety concerns stop people from collecting/submitting proof?
or
Q. What about the risks associated with collecting information? The risk of retribution?
A. The information submission form allows anonymous entry, and the content becomes public only once the editors of that region have verified the sources claimed in the entry.

Q. What is the motivation of the would be contributor to participate?
A. The same as what has motivated a large number of people to say/write a lot after the 26/11/2008 attacks in Mumbai -- to do something for the country! NeverForget aims to provide a channel to your enthusiasm and drive to do something real to improve the conditions of our motherland.

Q. What about the dangers of posting information that may not be verifiable?
A. At NeverForget, we strive to maintain very high levels of quality in terms of data, and its analysis. Any suspected breach of this should be immediately reported to us.

Q. Do we have legal consultancy/expertise covering the overall idea & that whets the above question specifically?
A. Not yet. Do you know a lawyer who can help?

Q. Will there be a disclaimer saying that we are not responsible in case the proof is found to be false? Will we be able to direct the "questioner" to the "submitter"?
A. No, there will be no such disclaimer. Instead, we will only cite references that _are_ already proven -- press releases, official manifestos, etc. As above, any suspected breach of this should be immediately reported to us.

Q. Despite the different kinds of efficient technology at our disposal, we are a "remote team" with a rather rudimentary understanding of the factors involved. How do we do this?
A. We aim to have in place decentralized core groups (e.g., the mohalla committees in pune constituency ) with their set of volunteers doing the ground work. Each of these core teams will network with other such cores to exchange information and ideas.

Q. Are we talking about overall accountability, i.e., all evaluatable promises? Or in the short-term focus on say, security and counter-terrorism, or providing clean water?
A. Overall. Get a list of as many promises as possible made by an elected representative (ER) when they were campaigning, and then track them. If they are vague/unevaluatable, call them out on it. We make no assumptions as to what topic is _important_ to a reader. It is for them to decide.

Q. My question is not in this list. Where do I go?
A. Please contact us here.