During the run up to the election in 2014 NaMo introduced the citizens with the word “GOVERNANCE”. While he personally encouraged citizens to get in touch with him over social media and My Gov website after becoming PM, very few MPs did so. One who took the lead was our EAM Smt. Sushma Swaraj. Another name that comes close to her is of then Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu.
She gave new dimension to grievance redressal. Be it citizen here or NRIs, she remained like a shadow. She leveraged her power to empower the citizens. Needless to mention, her contribution in simplifying the entire process of applying for a passport, increase in number of Passport Seva Kendra, rescuing citizens from overseas land or even approving visas to lot of citizens from Pakistan for medical treatment.
The expectation of citizens were high and so were the deliverable from her office in India and all embassies of India across the world. She was very much aware of the importance of time. Earlier getting passport was as good as applying for a Bajaj Super. She ensured that precious time is not wasted and update of every step is sent by SMS and email.
The message to all Passport Office and Indian Embassy was very clear. Keep the process simple. If anything was taken casually then the only person in the escalation matrix was she herself on Twitter.
Today as we are yet to recover from the news of her demise, let us take an oath that in our personal life whether we are in job or business there should be no excuses for grievance on desk. If someone is unhappy then a solution have to be offered in the shortest possible time.
Let us not be selfish in raising issues with government department, we too have areas of improvement in our life. Using social media for grievance redressal is not one way traffic. Let us ensure that the mobile is not switched off or kept on silent mode when someone wants help or has a complaint. She may be like sister for some and mother some. Let us preserve what she taught by her timely help every time someone approached her. Going out of the way and assisting a customer brings Customer Delight, rest is Customer Service.
Choice is ours how we wish to remember her in our daily life.
Pic Credit: Screentshots from Twitter.
