Dim the red

A red beacon flaring on top of a white Ambassador is among the most aesthetically challenged definitions of power,but its very in-your-facedness has made it the piece de resistance on the highways and backstreets of India. Its a light-and-sound show of political status,of the arrival of the VIP who wants the right of way,and demands it in the most glaring way possible,and in the most public of places. Its crude symbolism helps convey its meaning to the literate and the illiterate alike; theres nothing much to read into its blatancy,theres no fine print to scan,no evolved cipher to ponder over. Little wonder that its among the most wanted tokens by politicians and bureaucrats and also the most easily abused.

The hankering for a red beacon comes to light at regular intervals. After a workshop for first-time MPs in the previous Lok Sabha,the two things they asked for were raising of MPLAD funds to Rs 5 crore a year and,not surprisingly,the provision of red-beacon vehicles in their constituencies so that they would have easier mobility and greater acceptability. But now the Cabinet Secretariat has,rightly,put paid to such ambitions: its taken exception to the profusion of sarkari cars flaunting red lights,and insisted that only the chosen few specifically mentioned in the due notification could do so. And what luminous distinctions in the notification a minister with cabinet rank can use a red light with a flasher,but an MoS can only use a red light sans flasher!

So while K.C. Venugopal,the first-time Lok Sabha MP who has now become MoS for power,will have to ensure that the red light doesnt ostentatiously flare on his car-top,Praful Patel can happily flaunt the flasher.