Banning the beacon is mere symbolism
This will not curb our VIP culture or reduce the sense of entitlement. We need to reform the system thoroughly
The Centre’s decision to ban the use of red beacons is as symbolic as was their use on top vehicles that carried high officials. The removal of flashing lights won’t cure those blinded by power. Or the way they flaunt it.
But the step against this magisterial aura marks a sound beginning. It’s in line also with the Supreme Court’s advice to discard this practice which is unbecoming of a modern democracy. Such display of authority makes the sovereign, the people, assume a lesser position than their servants.
Yes, servants! Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi not call himself a servant of the people the way the first premier did in his 1947 address from the Red Fort? Be it Modi’s pradhan sewak or Nehru’s first servant, the sentiment remains the same. Primacy vests in the people!
But a lot needs to be done to make governmental authority people-oriented. Or to impart to it a benign makeover beyond the bayonets of armed guards used as status symbol, a la beacons, by politicos across India.
The ground reality is that only those with serious threats are actually guarded. The rest are rewarded at considerable cost to the public exchequer.
In the hinterland as also in small towns and cities, laal batti, gaadi, banglaa, bandook have for decades been associated with political and bureaucratic power.
The red light became a red rag to the bull when the delivery system failed the people amid rising graft and injustice. In metropolitan India, beacon-fitted vehicles came to be despised, together with their occupants, for either causing traffic jams or cutting through them as lesser mortals watched in frustration.
Cover as it does the President and the PM, the ban should go down well with the common people. Its populist appeal is highlighted by the fact that it will come into force on May 1, the International Workers’ Day.
It means beacons — the blue flasher— will be allowed only on vehicles belonging to emergency services. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari termed the move historic. Historic — perhaps not, path-breaking — yes!
The Modi government has annulled the very law that permitted such a display of power in the States and at the Centre. Its decision has been welcomed by Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, who prohibited beacons on ministerial vehicles a month ago as part of his poll promise to curb the VIP culture.
Welcome though, such symbolism has to be backed by substance. The answer lies in reforming the system, the mindsets of superiority at the expense of service. Short of that, it’ll be mere window dressing. The sense of entitlement that our VIPs have should go and hopefully, this is the first step towards that.