The inaugural ceremony of Scoop- 2014, the annual fest of DCAC’s Journalism Department was graced up by the presence of ex-Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and senior journalist M.J. Akbar. The distinguished personalities were on campus to be a part of the panel discussion ‘Heads Up’ about Lok sabha elections 2014. The event that lasted for an hour saw the three time Delhi CM answer the questions asked by fellow guest as well as the audience, and simultaneously taking a dig at the Kejriwal government, and at times, even at the UPA – II.

On being questioned about the blow Congress faced on the Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections 2013, she attributed it to the eventual desire of people to usher change for sake of the change. “There was a sense of fatigue in minds of Delhites. People were misled by tall promises, which we couldn’t counter due to loss of public faith and several internal party reasons.” said, Ms. Dikshit. Replying to this, Mr. Akbar commented that democracy is not merely the right to vote, but right to change government, and if public doesn’t do it for long, it forgets how to. He also suggested to not to look in large of the crowd, but small of the eye.” A government survives till the eyes of public repose faith in them, when those eyes go blank, cold and questioning, the good days are over, even Jawaharlal Nehru didn’t survive the elections fourth time”, he added.

On being questioned about corruption charges against her government, she snubbed all the allegations on the pretext of clean chits granted to her by concerned investigating committees. Also, she stressed more on the corruption of idea, than money, which has supposedly become the new disease political system ails with, where in the public was induced by the bait of free water, pakka houses and guaranteed jobs.

Answering back on the shelved Janlokpal bill, and weak governance at centre, she said held the Central government complacent, and indecisive and guilty for not articulating what it wanted. According to her, “The need of the hour is a stable and capable government that creates a congenial atmosphere to hold debates to inject fresh ideas in system and push pending bills forward.”

Along with discussions, mostly political, the event also had several light moments. M.J. Akbar underlined importance of majority governments against coalitions comparing the iconic characters of Ramayana, where in the hero had one face, and the villain was ten faced. On being interrogated on tax payer’s money spent on advertisements , Ms. Dikshit alleged all parties including BJP to be doing the same, “…maybe you like Mr.Modi’s face more than mine” she jokingly added.

The Journalism department is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The event also marked the launch of their department news paper – ‘The Critique’ by the chief guests. The discussion was a cue to the two-day fest in the college, holding numerous events like quiz, football bidding and ad mad.

Click here for our liveblog from the session this morning.

Image Credit: Sachin Kumar, DCAC