The evening of January 11 was anti-climactic for New Delhi’s residents. Here was an experiment with democracy, the Janata Durbar organised by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, that fell flat on its face. Almost every member of the Delhi Government’s Cabinet was ready to meet the common man in the capital city and settle grievances outside the Secretariat. Surprisingly, the meeting failed not because of a lack of public interest — the durbar idea was first received with derision — but because public interest was overwhelming, and eventually, became unmanageable.

There are obvious mistakes in how the party dealt with the meeting.

First, it is still too early in the day for a political party barely a month into its first-ever term in office, to initiate a public grievance redress system. . Its ministers, activists though they may have been, have almost no governance experience. Second, the event was mismanaged. There was no system to screen people with genuine grievances, especially those that required the intervention of Cabinet ministers, and distinguish them from just curious onlookers. Third, if the party did indeed expect a large public gathering, the venue it picked was too small and the process badly organised.

The AAP seems to have understood that the event left it looking a bit foolish and has since scrapped the idea of another Janata Durbar .

But this is possibly the party’s biggest mistake yet. A platform like this, where the public can meet its leaders, is a workable model. Not for every single decision that the government needs to take, as Prashant Bhushan seems to believe in, with his fondness for referendums on naxalism and the Kashmir question, but for smaller localised issues.

One example is Kerala Chief Minster Oommen Chandy’s highly successful mass contact programmes, which he started in 2004, and for which he won the UN’s Public Service Award last year. Not only is Chandy personally available for hours on end in every district he visits but local leaders and civil servants are present as well.

Every single move the Aam Aadmi Party makes is a headline. The Janata Durbar was a damp squib. But scrapping a workable model of public engagement simply because its organisers planned and managed it poorly is a step back in the party’s quest for transparent and accessible governance. Besides, it’s about time we experiment with our democracy.

What are your thoughts on the Janata Darbar ? Write to us at >bloncampus@thehindu.co.in

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