Heads, you lose

So the Delhi government has lost its spunk, and a lot of pillion-riders now stand to lose their heads as a result. By backing down on makin...

So the Delhi government has lost its spunk, and a lot of pillion-riders now stand to lose their heads as a result. By backing down on making protective helmets mandatory for pillion-riders, the BJP government of Delhi is guilty of the very behaviour that it has often attacked the Congress for: minority appeasement.

Only in this case, it is not over something as abstruse as personal law, but on a measure that is universally regarded as an important life-saving one. There can be no two ways about it. Protective helmets help prevent fatalities on the road and must be worn. Especially in urban clusters like Delhi, which are so heavily dependent on buses, cars, and scooters for their commuting needs. The Capital8217;s public buses have a well-deserved reputation for careening down its roads and mowing down any moving object coming in their way. Two-wheelers are particularly vulnerable in such a situation and over the years, thousands of scooterists and pillion-riders have died or suffered grievous head injuries thanks to these killer buses. So great has public anger been over such accidents that many of the erring bus drivers have been lynched and their vehicles set ablaze.

Instead of inviting such rough and ready corrective measures and in order to introduce some measure of safety instead, the Delhi government quite belatedly decided to make the wearing of helmets for pillion-riders mandatory from November 1. No sooner had the order been issued than the protests began. Sikh males have always been exempted from the rule because of their turbans. Now, it was argued, Sikh women and children must also be given a similar concession. This, despite the fact that several prominent, public-spirited people from the community had voiced their decisive support for the helmet move, stating that there was nothing in the Sikh tenants that militated against such safety aids. In its recent judgment, the Delhi High Court, while dismissing two writ petitions asking for such exemptions, called upon the petitioners to 8220;think rationally8221; and observed that 8220;when a fatal accident happened it did not choose between Sikh women and women from other communities8221;.

Despite this, the Delhi government succumbed to the very vocal protest campaigns, especially as one of its own ministers, Harsharan Singh Balli, took it upon himself to lobby for such an exception. What was perceived at stake was the valuable electoral support that Sikhs have extended to the party. When the safety of a government is pitted against the safety of people, there is no doubting which category comes up trumps. On Monday, Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma made it known that his government will not insist on the measure. Now it is back to square one, with the onus of wearing helmets left to individual pillion-riders. This is a defeat, not just for rationality as the good judges put it, but of the State8217;s role as a guardian of the people.