Vain, Insensitive, Pompous

So deeply has this culture got established now that it even consumes some really decent people. The Indian Express national bureau chief Pranab Dhal Samanta reported last week how Minister of State Anand Sharma got caught in an embarrassing situation, insisting that he be given VIP facilities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport ceremonial lounge to which only full cabinet ministers are entitled. Now those who know Anand know him to be a very decent, accessible, civilised politician. How did he get caught in such a mess? And what was the big deal after all? All it needed was to walk through the metal detector and a little bit of frisking.

BUT VIP-hood is not so much a matter of avoiding inconvenience as of flaunting status. What is the point of becoming a minister if I am taken so lightly that even a CISF sub-inspector can give me a pat down? Also, we extend VIP courtesies to ministers and diplomats of foreign countries when they visit us. Similarly, we are given the full VIP protocol when we go overseas. So why should we be denied the same privileges at home? The problem often, and it may have been in this case also, is the minister8217;s personal staff. It is the envy of the PA that feeds the pomposity of the VIP culture. Bhala mera mantri tumhare mantri se chhota kaise how can my minister be lesser than yours? I, for the life of me, cannot imagine how a civil, regular guy like Anand can get caught in this. And finally, and this is the most disappointing of all from a government headed by a man as simple and unassuming as Manmohan Singh, the fact also is that it is considering amending the rulebook 8212; to extend airport VIP courtesies to ministers of state as well. This is the wrongest possible way to respond to Anand Sharma8217;s little problem one early morning rather than midnight, the only inaccuracy in the Express report. This will enable another 45 people to use these ceremonial lounges and stroll past security and immigration while you and I, fare-paying, tax-paying citizens, wait for hours sometimes, if you are arriving in Delhi, in immigration queues that back all the way up on the infamous escalator that once swallowed a child.

Every time a VIP breezes past those fretting in these queues, he gets curses and so does the entire political class. So brazen has this phenomenon got now that at airport security counters, policemen routinely paste government circulars listing the 8220;dignitaries8221; who should not be frisked. These include ministers, judges, ambassadors, foreign official delegates, SPG protectees which mainly means current and former prime ministers and their families. The last entry on these lists is a name, Robert Vadra, 8220;when accompanying SPG protectors8221;. Now anybody who knows Robert even casually or sees him in a restaurant, at a party, in a shop, knows that he is a simple, unassuming, even understated guy. You will never see him throwing his weight around. Yet, the sarkari mind, steeped in the VIP culture, puts him in a hall of fame he would rather be out of. Lakhs of people pass by airport security every day looking at that silly memo.

EVEN more ridiculous, as this newspaper reported last week, is the phenomenon of the National Highway Authority of India installing giant signboards at its toll plazas listing those with the privilege of toll free travel. The entry at the top of that list is the President of India, followed by a whole panoply of sarkari functionaries. Now, first of all, why should they travel without paying the toll? Second, if the President of India was really driving by, do you expect him to point out the signboard to the toll plaza attendant so that he could wave him through?

This is because VIP culture is not so much about freebies, convenience or perks as about pomposity of rank. It is to tell the janata who their new royalty is, and who matters in this country and who the fare-paying citizen doesn8217;t. You can go around the world and you would not find such idiocy. Not in the US, Japan, UK, all of Europe, China. Not even in Pakistan. One of the really progressive things Nawaz Sharif did early in his second tenure as prime minister was to throw open the airport VIP lounges to anybody for a charge 8212; then Rs 500.

But in our country we have moved backwards. Nobody seems immune from this temptation, not even us in the media. The 8216;Press8217; stickers for our vehicles were invented so we could have easy passage through curfews and riots. Today these are a ticket to many privileges, including jumping traffic lights, illegal parking and avoiding traffic fines. Once again, the janata is not amused.

The rise and the proliferation of VIP culture have dovetailed viciously into the increasing public perception of political corruption to feed this anti-politician, even anti-establishment, upsurge. An assault on VIP culture is now long overdue, and as the prime minister often says, nobody can stop an idea whose time has come. Maybe, in this case, a beginning would be made again with the institution responsible for initiating so much reform in our system, the higher judiciary. What an electrifying impact it would have if the Supreme Court were to announce one day that it wants no VIP privileges for judges, except necessary security. And who knows, one day soon an MP, maybe a Sachin Pilot or Milind Deora or Arun Jaitley or Jay Panda, may announce that he chucks these perks with the contempt they deserve, that he can afford to, and will, pay the 30-rupee highway toll. It would make the remaining 794 fall in line in no time.

Postscript: An apology is due to many who wrote in response to last Saturday8217;s National Interest, pointing out that I was wrong in describing martyr Chandra Shekhar Azad as a Rajput and that he was, in fact, a Brahmin. I stand corrected. The series of columns on Uttar Pradesh politics was built around the thesis that our voter is slowly escaping divisive Mandal-Kamandal politics and moving to the centre. This, the severity of the reaction to my getting a martyr8217;s caste wrong, shows there is still a long way to go. So I also stand chastened.

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