The Aam Aadmi Party's 'Delhi Dialogue' on Saturday ended up as Delhi monologue.

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party's 'Delhi Dialogue' on Saturday ended up as Delhi monologue. An exercise purported to be a two-way communication between the party and the public was a little more than an election rally where the party reeled out promises for several segments of the Delhi electorate. The only participation of those present in the audience was by way of periodic clapping. In the end, it was disappointments galore for those expecting a meaningful exchange of ideas.

The crowd at Jantar Mantar was impressive, but it gradually became clear with the proceedings that Arvind Kejriwal had chosen the occasion to launch his pre-poll promises, which he preferred not to call election manifesto. Whether the public failed to read the fine print or the AAP deliberately chose to reshape the dialogue session into a campaign rally to impress the common man with its ‘intellectual prowess’, wasn’t clear.

The congregation was a regular political jamboree with songs, high-decibel music, band performance, sloganeering and hailing of the party chief Kejriwal with a signature song composed by Bollywood’s music director duo Vishal Dadlani (Paanch saal Kejriwal, Kejriwal – Five years Kejriwal, Kejriwal) – a feel good event for the party that is hoping to reclaim a position in Delhi it had thrown away just about a year ago.

Kejriwal’s promises, one had to admit, were novel in the field of electoral politics. Among others, these included — a promise to turn Delhi into India’s first ‘100 percent corruption-free state’, collateral-free loans to students, skill development to nurture entrepreneurship and making Delhi a ‘Wi-Fi city’, if the party came to power for the next five years.

The list of speakers on stage was a veritable AAP Who’s Who — from former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland Meera Sanyal to former Apple Inc sales head Adarsh Shastri; from venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy to National Skill Development Corporation COO Atul Bhatnagar. Alluding to the heavyweight members, the convenor of the Delhi Dialogue Ashish Khetan said, “AAP is a party with a difference. Hardly any other party has the kind of intellectual base that AAP has,” he added. “Through this platform, we want to give equal opportunity to the youths of Delhi to engage in a dialogue with us.”

The old-school political rhetoric of poll promises didn’t go down too well with some supporters attending the event. Akshaya, an IIT-D student, said, “I have come with two of my friends to listen to Arvind Kejriwal, also an IIT alumnus, and the other leaders who were once corporate professionals. We wanted to interact with them on a few issues, but here it’s just a routine political rally, with an overt display of hailing of leaders on dais, and making tall promises. Despite sitting here for three hours, we didn’t even get any form to write our queries to the party. Even, I asked a few volunteers about it, but nobody could guide us. We expected Delhi Dialogue to be different from any other political event.”

An AAP member at the venue justified: “The aim of Delhi Dialogue is to create a blueprint that will deliver the aspirations of the people of Delhi and it’s through interaction with various groups, like today it’s with the youth.”

The party website explains: “Through these series of dialogues, AAP aims to draw up a 50-point blueprint for a five-year government, that will deliver the actionables for all sections of Delhi... Health, education, housing, sanitation, employment, transport, social justice, women’s rights and safety all these issues will be addressed with ongoing participation from the citizens of Delhi.”

But, the only thing missing at the event was dialogue. “We’re here to see what it’s all about. Last year AAP visited our college and we had an interaction with them. So we were excited about this event, but now it seems the party has fallen on the lines of other parties. The only difference is that AAP has evolved to be more glamorous in its content to woo voters. The personal one–on-one connectivity it established in the beginning is missing,” said Rahul Tiwari, a student of Shivaji College.

“Ab yeh aam aadmi na reh kar bahut khaas ban chuke hain (From common man they have become very special),” remarked one in Tiwari’s group.

“This kind of dialogue sessions were decided prior to Delhi assembly poll in 2013 and it was meant to take place with a limited number of people, maximum 100. Is it possible to have a dialogue with anyone from a gathering of thousands at Jantar Mantar,” a former AAP member questioned.

Amidst all the hullabaloo, however, the core support base of AAP — its friends in the cyber world — were seen doing what they are best at: Clicking selfies with friends with the AAP banners in the background and simultaneously uploading it all on social networking sites.

In his one-way communication with his supporters, Kejriwal claimed that the promises he had made, were fulfilled during his 49-day stint as CM. And thereafter, he announced a plan for Delhi's youth, assuring of fulfilling it, if he came to power. The plan included:

· 20 new colleges, double the seats in existing colleges in five years, colleges in villages on partnership basis, build network of libraries.

· Training to 10 lakh youth and 8 lakh new jobs in 10 years. Encourage entrepreneurship. Facilitate loans for start-ups.

· Government to act as guarantor for students seeking bank loans, with six-year moratorium and no collateral.

· Revival of closed or dysfunctional industrial areas. Delhi to have the lowest VAT rate in the country in next 5 years.

· Stadium and sports training facility in villages; all school grounds to be opened for students; government will adopt talents and groom them as national and international players.