In Calcutta, when as children we played games and some younger kid came along and insisted on joining in, one way of handling the situation was to let the new kid play but only after whispering into one another's ears the words elé belé. An elé belé is a player who thinks he is participating but who is in truth merely being allowed to go through the motions of participation. Apart from him, everybody playing knows that he is not to be taken seriously. A goal scored by him is not a real goal.

When I was a child growing up in Calcutta, mastering the (admittedly cruel) art of elé belé was very important. When that nagging kid arrived, accompanied by a doting mother, we could by a mere glance convey to one another that the new kid would be an elé belé. What we do not always realize is how much of the adult world, especially nowadays when ‘participatory democracy‘ is the rage, continues to use this technique of elé belé. If we think hard enough, we can all recall collective decision-making situations-a selection committee, a committee for drafting rules-where some committee members were el bels. And though we may not have been aware, there have for sure been situations where we ourselves were the el bels.