The Aam Aadmi Party is planning to ban the entry of aam aadmi, including mediapersons covering Delhi Government beat, to Players Building after oath of office is administered to the Kejriwal Cabinet on February 14.
To ensure the new Ministers are able to hold free and frank deliberations with their officers, sources said there was a serious thinking going on in the AAP to restrict the entry of the general public and media to the Delhi Secretariat through prior appointments.
Sources in AAP said media’s entry will be banned in Delhi Secretariat due to previous experiences in its 49-day rule. The AAP leadership felt that mediapersons and the aam aadmi were too ‘intrusive’ and that was hampering the functioning of the Government. As per AAP plan, all Press conferences would be held in the media room.
A senior party officer said: “The new Government wants to deliver. It does not want interruptions at work. Visitors will only be allowed after prior appointments. The media will be briefed on each and every decision taken by the Government.”
The party has some former senior journalists like Ashutosh, Nagendra Sharma, Ashish Khetan and Deepak Bajpai in its strategy team but AAP is toying with the idea to muzzle the media. In Delhi polls, a few AAP leaders also attacked media for being biased. Sources said the Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal is still unhappy with the media. In the lok Sabha polls, Kejriwal had attacked the media for being predisposed towards the then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Earlier, AAP had banned entry of media to Players Building in December 2013 during its 49-day tenure. The matter was resolved after mediapersons protested over the decision as they perceived it as an attempt to gag the media. Manish Sisodia, who was no. 2 in the then Arvind Kejriwal Government, finally revoked the order banning entry of journalists.