Diaspora Opinion Instrument · Karuthu Vellam Methodology & Safeguards
கருத்து வெள்ளம் — முறையும் பாதுகாப்பும்
Pack publishes the methodology and safeguards of Karuthu Vellam (கருத்து வெள்ளம்), the diaspora opinion-mapping instrument at /mandate — Pol.is-derived math owned in-house, Laplace-DP noise on the live counter, k=25 cohort floor, era-week archival readings. The pack does NOT publish counts. The policy artefact is the methodology, not a result.
Audience & use
Audience: UK MPs · Lords · FCDO South Asia · Cabinet Office · DCMS · APPG for Tamils
Best used for: FCDO written questions on diaspora consultation methodology in conflict-affected communities · Cabinet Office written questions on standards for opinion-mapping civic instruments operated by UK Community Interest Companies on behalf of diaspora communities · DCMS written questions on UK data-protection regime as applied to cookie-pseudonymous civic instruments and on differential privacy as a published data-minimisation discipline · APPG-Tamils evidence sessions on what diaspora consultation looks like when no representation claim is made and no individual is named
Remembrance frame
Karuthu Vellam is an opinion-mapping instrument, not a vote of confidence. The policy artefact here is the methodology, not the readings the methodology produces. UK Government engagement with the methodology is what the pack asks for; UK Government endorsement of any reading the methodology produces is what the pack does NOT ask for. The Belarus 2026 framing is instructive: this reading could not safely be produced in polling stations.
Two-layer reading
Cited Tier-A evidence is open and unresolved. Statements honour memory; evidence remains under-actioned.
Each anniversary produces tabled PQs, FCDO follow-ups, and a tracked answer.
Evidence anchors (Tier-A)
Policy asks
Sample Parliamentary Questions
- written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department, in formulating United Kingdom policy on Sri Lanka, has access to any structured diaspora-consultation methodology that does not require diaspora members to identify themselves to a state or state-adjacent body, having regard to the documented surveillance pattern set out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in report A/HRC/60/21 of 28 August 2025. - written → Cabinet Office
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what published standards her Department applies to opinion-mapping civic instruments operated by United Kingdom-registered Community Interest Companies on behalf of diaspora communities, with reference to the Cabinet Office's 2018 consultation principles. - written → DCMS
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's position is on the application of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 to cookie-pseudonymous civic instruments that do not collect direct personal data, and on the use of the differential-privacy framework as set out by Dwork, Naor, Pitassi and Rothblum (STOC 2010) as a published data-minimisation discipline.
Pack-specific safety rules
- Never publishes a count from Karuthu Vellam in TLTE voice. Counts are differentially-private aggregates published on /mandate; the pack only points to them.
- Never asserts that any Karuthu Vellam reading is representative of the diaspora. N is always self-selected.
- Never asks the UK Government to endorse a reading. The ask is engagement with the methodology and the safeguards.
- Never collects diaspora identifiers. The instrument is cookie-pseudonymous; the pack is signposting only.
- Always names the ε privacy budget and the k=25 cohort floor when summarising the instrument for an external audience.
- Always pairs at least one Karuthu Vellam self-reference citation with at least one independent methodology citation (Recerca 2021 / red-dwarf / Dwork 2010).