Every politician is meant to be as good as his word. But while they sometimes promise us the moon, we often end up with a handful of mud. What, then, is the solution in such a scenario? Accountability is the simple answer. As citizens, it's our duty to reverse the "Big Brother is watching you" theory and apply it to our elected representatives. Did they live up to their election manifestos? Have they followed through on a certain task they said they'd undertake? Or have they largely been twiddling their thumbs? These are the questions we must ask of our leaders, and that's what MumbaiVotes has set out to do.

It's an organisation that runs the website mumbaivotes.com where all the promises of the city's political candidates are laid bare. Avowedly autonomous and unbiased in nature, the site includes features like five-minute videos where candidates are asked three questions: What's your track record in public life? What's your agenda for the people? And what's the biggest mistake you have made in your political career? There is also a section where experts assess the manifesto of each party, and another where they publish a report card of each MLA's performance. A database of online and newspaper articles acts as a further watchdog. The whole idea, in fact, is to ensure that electoral promises are in the public domain so that the leaders don't rest easy till they deliver on the same.