A pub in Khar, bustling with youngsters dressed in chic clothes on a Sunday afternoon, is nothing unusual. But the revellers listening to politicians talk about the Lok Sabha polls while sipping on their drinks is a rare sight.
As election fever grips the city, public representatives and candidates are addressing gatherings, no matter how small, to reach out to voters. And on Sunday, Congress candidate for Mumbai North Central Priya Dutt and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ashish Shelar decided to engage with young voters at a pub in Khar.
The event was part of Citizens Converge, an initiative of a few Legislative Assistant to Member of Parliament (LAMP) fellows that aims at making politics, policy-making more informed, transparent and participatory. The fellows, who have completed their fellowship in Delhi, decided to increase voter engagement in Mumbai.
“Our objective is to inform the youth about the basics of parliamentary democracy, introduce them to a public representative who can talk to them about his or her work, and they can in turn ask questions. We had been using this space (in the pub) for holding travel open mics. We decided to hold such an open forum on politics here,” said Saurabh Punamiya, a LAMP fellow and one of the organisers.
The audience members sat comfortably in the air-conditioned hall, browsing through their phones in between sessions and clicking pictures. The pub staff took their orders for drinks. They were given an introduction on the types of government and their respective roles. This was followed by an interview of Ms. Dutt, after which she took questions from the audience. The same process was later repeated with Mr. Shelar.
“It is very important to engage with the youth. We need to hear them instead of talking for them. A lot of youngsters want to come and intern with us. We always encourage them,” Ms. Dutt said. She went on to talk about the support system in England for MPs in terms of funds, an office and a team, and how in India, an MP has to work without that.
Two audience members asked her about the Congress’s proposed Nyay scheme. “Do you think it is a handout?” asked Arjun, one of the young attendees.
Ms. Dutt answered, “It is not a handout, it is like social security in the U.S. The poorest of poor have almost zero income. It will give them enough to start with, but they will still need to work.”
Ms. Dutt’s session was followed by Mr. Shelar’s, who described his job “similar to the fire brigade, where something keeps coming up and you have to rush to resolve it.” The legislator from Bandra stressed on the need for corporators to hold ‘area sabhas’ with residents of the ward once a month, as stipulated in the Nagar Raj Bill.
A member of the audience asked him about the hawkers shifted from Linking Road and whether their livelihood had been secured. “Hawkers is a social issue. The BMC record shows there are approximately 75,000 hawkers in the city. There is an entire economy attached to them. If we remove them overnight, will they be pushed into crime? At the same time, we have to hear concerns of local residents also. The hawking policy needs to be workable,” Mr. Shelar said.
The event also saw presentations on how to track your MP’s performance.