10 features of VIP culture which are yet to be banned

While the Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to drop the red beacon light from official vehicles including that of the Prime Minister from May 1, ostensibly in a bid to end Very Important Person (VIP) culture, the expectations from Prime Minister Narendra Modi is higher. However, while the red beacon is the easiest to drop, the government may not find it as easy to stop the following practices associated with the VIP culture :

Sirens and road blocks

Sirens and the practice of stopping the traffic to allow VIPs a free passage is rampant. A sign of VIP culture, blocking traffic to make way for VIP vehicles should also be limited to the three top Constitutional posts perhaps.

Excessive security

VIP movement on the road invariably sees policemen and patrol cars line up along the route. When VIPs attend events, armed security guards often intrude into the gathering.

Airports and Airlines

Will VIPs queue up with other passengers at airports? Will the VIP lounges be thrown open to other passengers? Will the VIPs continue to be given preference in boarding the plane and offered seats in the front row?

Plaques

Will VIPs resist the temptation of not allowing organisers, ministries, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and corporate bodies, to unveil plaques with their name every time they inaugurate projects funded by public money after all?

Motorcades

Barring the three top Constitutional posts, will the VIPs please reduce their motorcade/convoys to two or three vehicles?

Queues

Will Indians now start seeing VIPs stand in a queue at Immigration counters, banks, post offices, railway stations etc?

VIP quotas

Will the VIPs please give up quotas on railway ticket, housing, land, flats, plots etc?

Guards at home

Will VIPs now start paying for using security guards as domestic help at home? Senior bureaucrats invariably have several such helpers at home.

Official cars at schools

Will VIPs now stop using official cars to send and pick up their children from schools? And, will the government make it mandatory for all school students to use school buses?

Orderlies to carry briefcases

Will VIPs now stop the practice of allowing their orderlies to carry their briefcases?

The Cabinet decision comes in the wake of similar decisions taken by Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab and Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh. Even earlier, in December 2013, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi had ruled against red beacons.

According to a news report ,“In 2015, the Indian government mulled to prepare a list of VIPs, so that they get easy immigration at US airports, and initially government thought of keeping 2,000 odd names in the list which could go up to 15,000 in the years to come.”

The report also highlighted that “Britain reportedly has a total of 84 officially designated VIPs. France boasts 109 such personages, Japan 125, Germany 142, Australia 205, the United States 252, South Korea 282, Russia 312, and our neighbour China has a total of 435 designated VIPs.”

PTI quoted Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari as saying that the decision was "historic". Gadkari then showed the way by becoming the first minister to take the beacon off his official vehicle after the Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by the Prime Minister.

The minister said that "this government is a government of common masses and has decided to abolish VIP culture of beacon lights and sirens."

With PTI inputs