You want to  save your neighbour’s dog, the dancing bear, trees, monkeys or the Ram Setu, go online. Free petition sites give you space to pour your grievances on the Internet and an opportunity to find like-minded people from across the world to back your cause.

Log on and write out a petition and then wait for the signatories to grow. Educated people like to engage themselves with a serious cause. If you put up a flaky, flippant petition, chances are they will sit on one or more of the online petitioning sites. But let's be honest. There are people out there who are more than willing to petition the continuation of the comic series Spongebob Squarepants on television. Sometimes they work. Believe me! 

So here we are, a billion plus Indians worrying about everything from poor infrastructure, corruption, governments that have plodded and not delivered, political causes that have led to riots and murder on high streets and now a bridge underwater at the country's southern tip  finds a place of prominence online...

Online campaigns include a  petition to the US Department of Justice, urging a review of “events surrounding the prosecution of six Black students in Jena, Louisiana,..also, a petition asking the “notorious for being anti-Semetic” Google to remove a few disturbing things that appear when you type in Jew in the search box.... and a petition to India's president on Ram Setu by Shachi Rairikar who wants the project to be reconsidered “keeping in view the historical and religious importance of Shri Ram Setu, the sentiments of the people and the alternative method suggested for a shorter sea route.”

The flow has already started. Hindutva is again the flavour of the season, thanks to the Ram Setu controversy. People from Ajmer to Ghaziabad, from Banahatti to Bangalore and from India to the United States have come out to sign the petition.

The petition with most signatures on www.gopetition.com is one that asks people to say NO to the United Nations’ decision to abolish the traditional Chinese script in 2008. Nearly 400,000 signatures back it.

One that is yet to find a supporter is from Ashok, whose petition ab naukari nahi karni asks people to back his request for premature release after two decades of service from the Army Medical Corps. It was posted in June (http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ab-naukari-nahi-karni.html). This just shows that a petition on a free website might not be enough to get you sacked!

Adapted from the following source: Rahul Sharma, Hindustan Times

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2. GoPetition in the Media
3. Net effect: Have a cause, will plead