Denying red beacons to MPs hardly dents the larger culture of VIP-cossetting Privileges are pared,not perpetuated. It is an essential principle of democracy that is lost on the honourable members of Parliament. At a recent Congress Parliamentary Party Executive,MPs,again,expressed consternation over why the government was delaying action on the recommendation of the parliamentary committee of privileges,which said the red beacon that exalted symbol of separateness be installed on their car tops. The flaring red beacon is a road show of political status,the arrival of the VIP who wants the right of way and demands it in the most glaring way possible. The party president,Sonia Gandhi,shot down the suggestion,saying that it would only add to the problems in Delhi. Gandhis is a gesture that pairs well with the current anti-politician sentiment in the country. But such a statement amounts to little in the larger culture of VIP-cossetting that the establishment indulges in. Instead of engaging in the task of dropping privileges that do not serve the democratic purpose,instead of separating the necessary from the outdated,parliamentarians are trying to institutionalise segregation to enable a privileged few to glide through cordons. It is there in the 31 categories of VIPs down to spouses of high commissioners who are exempted from checks at airports as well as in the outrage that is expressed whenever a film star or an envoy is submitted to security drills in a foreign country. It is also there in the exemptions to toll payment on national highways even MPs and MLAs,apart from high court judges and speakers of legislative assemblies come under that conveniently large umbrella. Delhi has come a long way since its days as the imperial capital when ones official status,as ascribed in the Warrant of Precedence,dictated ones place in society. It is time parliamentarians grasped that difference.
