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ShareNow granted a function was taking place later in the evening. And a VVIP was expected to grace the occasion with his exalted presence. But all that was hours away that evening. Perhaps the guard had been instructed by his bosses to do this. But he was incredibly rude, shooing away ("Just get out of here') a harmless, middle-aged lady while the other guards who had recognised my sister looked on, embarrassed.
I have reason to bring up what may seem to be a fairly quotidian incident. It's that word VIP. Not only is it being thrown round much more (and that too in the world's largest democracy) but VIPs of all gradations have been puffing themselves to sizes way beyond acceptable, and what they merit.
The blinking red and blue lights on the cars of babus and ministers make it impossible for the rest of us. You would think that getting to their destination instantly was a matter of life and death and state -- even if it's only the sahib on his way to getting his hair cut. It's all the more irksome when pilot cars accompany those higher up on caste ladder of power.
Just recently we had to wait for well over five long minutes while a minister of state --one leg in his beaconed car the other outside on the kerb -- chatted with somebody in the driveway of the Habitat Centre. All the while his pilot car was parked alongside, making it impossible for others to go through. So much for noblesse oblige.
There's delicious irony in the phrase used for those who govern us: public servant. Perhaps masters of the khadi universe (or whatever has replaced this uniform) would describe them better. Take our two external affairs ministers, one Union, and the other state: both presumably found it beneath them to stay in the respective Bhavans of the states they represent while their official residences were readied for them. SM Krishna was ensconced in the Presidential suite of the ITC Maurya, and Shashi Tharoor at the Taj Mahal.
Apparently, both paid for the rooms out of their own pockets. We taxpayers were spared. But, that is not the point: why are the Bhavans not good enough for public servants?
Tharoor tweets that the two things he can't do without -- privacy and a gym -- were not available in Kerala Bhavan. Don't tell me that his official residence will have a gym. As for privacy -- aren't politicians supposed to be men and women of the people?
These two ministers have perhaps been unlucky. Others may have done far worse. It's just that all this comes at a time when Sonia Gandhi has been advocating an austerity drive in her party because of the grim situation with prices for the bare necessities spiralling out of control and drought affecting large parts of the country.
Not only should those elected to serve the people -- as well the bureaucrats paid to do so -- care for the aam aadmi, they should be seen to bedoing so. In this case, gestures are not futile.
Obviously, the recent directive that bureaucrats fly economy is part of the same austerity drive. But I wonder why the Members of Parliament have been left out. Hopefully, their consciences begin to prick them and they voluntarily make their way to the back of the plane.
Some years ago a reporter asked the French president (I think it was Valery Giscard d'Estang) what the price of a metro ticket was. He didn't know, was embarrassed, and it became a national scandal. Were our rulers to travel by bus or go shopping for provisions, at least once in a blue moon, they could be able to empathise with the aam janta.
