Is it more hype than substance?

Janata Darbar’, the much-hyped step by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the grievances of people ended as a flop show a few days ago. The CM has now clarified that people need not come to the Secretariat with their grievances and he himself will visit different parts of the city area-wise every Saturday. 

Apparently, the durbar debacle points towards the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party-led Government’s (AAP) inability to make a distinction that needs to be made between an idea and its execution. Despite his course-correction measures under which citizens will have to register their complaints online, via post or through phone calls, this instability in decision-making is drawing flak not only from the rival political parties but also from the citizens. 

Metrolife speaks to political parties and people from all walks of life to find out how they view the recent activities at the political/ governance level. 

Senior Delhi Congress leader and ex-MLA Mukesh Sharma says, “The present Delhi Government had come to power in the name of serving the people, but the AAP-led Delhi Government has now deviated from its objective. The Janata Darbar drama was enacted  only to make fun of the people of Delhi, who really needed to get their problems redressed.

Forty three-year-old Ravi Mishra, a senior executive in an MNC, says, “A party that came to power for its approach that it ‘deals with the people at the ground level’, should seriously consider its each and every move.”

He says, “AAP is in power because people believed in them. Ill-thought out and random initiatives might make them an object of mockery. Therefore, it is important for them to initiate reforms at the governance levels because if governance is improved, complaints will ultimately reduce.”

Though AAP-led Government’s first initiative ended in failure, 32-year-old Abhishek Shukla, who voted for the party believes AAP still has the potential to reaffirm the people’s faith in the idea of participatory democracy. “Even if they made a mistake, they realised it and introduced other ways to address the problems of the people,” says Abhishek, pointing out that if the party had organised Janata Darbars in a large area instead of the Secretariat, it wouldn’t have ended in a fiasco. 

“If it was successful, the new party in power would have known about the loopholes at the governance level and could have worked on improving it while handling grievances of people related to civic or social problems. Even if they have introduced helpline numbers, they now have to devise new strategies that could minimise bribery,”  he says.

Like Abhishek, many people are still pinning their hopes on AAP who promised to bring changes and streamline government functioning in Delhi.