A farewell to farewells?

This ceremony of the entire Union Cabinet bidding the prime minister farewell as he/she proceeds or returns from a foreign trip has to be one of the most meaningless rituals that Indraprastha is heir to. For years, press photographers have delighted in this sight of assorted men and women 8212; lined up like shuffling schoolchildren at a sports parade, awaiting their turn to namaskar the departing or arriving dignatory as the case may be 8212; and have promptly splashed it all over the front page. Yet, think for a moment, of the costs that are entailed in this seemingly innocuous exercise. Not just in terms of ministerial time, but in the numerous traffic snarls caused by dozens of heavyweights simultaneously descending on the airport.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with his reformer8217;s instincts, has quite rightly signalled that it is high time that the country is spared this great ceremony of absence. He has made it known that he would much prefer his colleagues to be at their desks instead. The message has drawn only a partial response this time. Ministers and party colleagues, including Sonia Gandhi, were at hand to bid Singh a fond farewell at Safdarjung airport which is at the heart of the Capital, instead of the international airport 8212; a good way further 8212; as he left for his first foreign trip as prime minister. Next time, hopefully, even this half-measure will be dispensed with, as indeed it must.

There may have been a time when a newly-independent nation required just such a spectacle of ministerial bonding and general genuflection to the leader. That time has long passed. India is now a self-confident democracy with its prime minister as the first among equals. His or her status is not dependent on these demonstrations of an almost feudal loyalty. India is not Pakistan, for instance, where prime ministers returning from their foreign jaunts may justifiably harbour fears that their jobs no longer exist given unscripted army manoeuvres. Ask Nawaz Sharif all about that one.