Nitish revives darbar culture

PATNA: Holding darbar for hearing public grievances and ensuring justice to the aggrieved persons has been in practice since ancient times. But the most famous darbar was held during the period of Emperor Jehangir who had put up a long golden chain at the entrance of his palace.
The chain was attached to the bell in his bedroom. That chain of justice at the Agra Fort was a link between the people and the emperor.
Anyone was free to pull the chain with sixty small bells and could have a personal hearing from Jehangir himself.
Emperor Akbar and king Harshavardhan are also known for their ‘darshan’ to the common people and listening to their grievances. The Delhi sultans had introduced a novel practice of addressing the complainant. As per the practice, those visiting the darbar in red attire would be treated as faryadi (complainant). Razia Sultan, too, had taken recourse to this practice when, after death of her father, the court nobles and her brothers conspired to deny her the throne. One day Razia appeared in public in red dress to tell the people about violation of her father’s will. People turned violent and attacked the palace and defeated the conspirators to crown her as the sultan. “There was a regular mechanism for the common people to approach the ruler in different forms. But it was in a restricted manner. Emperor Jehangir was the first monarch who made himself available to his subjects round-the-clock,” said medieval historian Imtiaz Ahmad.
Ashoka, the Great, was possibly the first king who used to tour his empire, known as his Dhamma Yatra, to listen to the people’s grievances. CM Nitish Kumar has seemingly taken a cue from the practice of the emperor while charting out his people-contact mission. The king, however, found it impossible to lend his ears to all the people and, therefore, thought it necessary to appoint officers who would complete the work that he had started.
These days, almost all the chief ministers have devised a way to meet the people with their grievances. Lalu Prasad was the first CM who had started Janata Darbar. But, he neither developed a regular mechanism nor continued it for long. Recently, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav held his first-ever Janata Darbar where thousands of people poured in with their grievances.
Several senior leaders and others who saw Nitish’s ‘Janata Ke Darbar Mein Mukhya Mantri’ programme and learnt about its mechanism were quite impressed. “This is an impressive and useful experiment where common people get an opportunity to meet the chief minister,” said actor Nitu Chandra after watching the darbar sometimes back.