AN END TO ‘RED LIGHT MEANS GO’
Indian PM bans government officials from having car beacons that stop traffic after stoppages cost lives in emergencies
India to limit use of flashing rooftop lights on vehicles to clear traffic,
It is perhaps the most coveted symbol of power, privilege and status in India – the flashing red beacon on the roof of a car, which makes city traffic part like someone undoing a zip.
Ordinary Indians have to resign themselves to missing appointments or even flights should a car with a flashing beacon appear, causing traffic police to stop all other vehicles to allow unhindered passage for the VIP convoy.
There is no guessing who the VIP might be: a chief minister, a police official, a judge, an income tax commissioner, or even a secretary with special in- fluence. Who gets a beacon is at the discretion of state or federal transport authorities, who can be very flexible, not to say indiscriminate, in their decisions. But not any more.
Prime minister Narendra Modi has ruled that from May 1, federal and state governments can no longer distribute the beacons to dignitaries of their choice. Only emergency vehicles, such as fire engines and ambulances, will be allowed to have the beacon. Even Mr Modi’s official car will not have one.
This “red- light culture” has been so pernicious that the beacons were among the first things that first-time members of a newly elected parliament demanded in 2009.
India’s political and administrative class is perhaps the most entitled of any major democracy in the world, expecting privileged access to every kind of public service: roads, airports, schools, hospitals and government offices.
This attitude spurred Ravindra Gaikwad, an MP, to assault an Air India staffer for not upgrading him to business class – even though the aircraft had only economy-class seats.
In a rare show of defiance, Air India banned Mr Gaikwad from its flights for about a month. He was allowed to fly again on Wednesday.
Airports are always hotspots for VIP privilege. Ministers, judges, bureaucrats and their spouses are exempted from pre-boarding security checks.
Airport staff often carry their hand luggage and escort them past queues to wait for their
The supreme court called the vehicle beacons ‘a menace to society’ that had become ‘a fashion and status symbol’ rather than an emergency signal
flight in the comfort of VIP rooms, away from the crowds in the terminal.
Entire hospital wings are cordoned off for VIP patients, meaning less space for everyone else.
The children of politicians and civil servants get preferential places at schools and colleges, thus denying admission to other more deserving applicants.
In February last year, a member of the Shiv Sena party (Mr Gaikwad’s party), hit a woman traffic constable because she had pulled him over for using his mobile phone while driving.
A Bharatiya Janata Party politician assaulted a guard at a toll booth in Rajasthan last July for not letting him drive on without paying.
Politicians routinely expect to have a phalanx of gun-toting security guards, making their passage through the country even more cumbersome.
But nothing screams “I am so important” quite like the redlight motorcade, even if it comes at the expense of a life.
In 2010, a traffic blockade cost an eight- year- old boy his life in Kanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He had head injuries from a domestic accident and on the way to hospital, his father was stuck in traffic for half an hour because traffic was stopped to give way to the convoy of the prime minister at the time, Manmohan Singh. In 2010, businessman Anil Jain, 48, died in an ambulance in central Delhi because of traffic blocks imposed for a prime ministerial convoy.
In 2009, a patient died of respiratory failure after his ambulance was prevented from entering a hospital in Chandigarh. The gates had been shut for a politician’s visit. In 2013, the supreme court called the vehicle beacons “a menace to society” that had become “a fashion and status symbol” rather than an emergency signal. It ruled that the beacons should be used only by top officials, but the order is often ignored.
In 2015, Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, announced that neither he nor his ministers would have the beacons. This year, the new chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab banned most state government officials from having the beacons on their cars.
Mr Modi’s ruling shows recognition of the public’s frustration with the so-called red-light culture. But getting rid of the beacons is one thing. Convincing politicians that they are not that important is quite another.