When the red light goes out of their lives

When the red light goes out of their lives

The Modi government deserves kudos for the decision to remove the most visible symbol of India's VIP culture: the flashing red beacon atop the vehicles of the high and mighty. By removing the provision in the central motor vehicle rules that allowed the Union and state governments to permit designated functionaries to use such markers of exalted status, the government has struck a blow for equality. The move will discomfit a tiny minority, but delight the vast majority. It is a low-cost but powerful way of reiterating the present government's stated commitment to reduce the gap between the elite and the subaltern. That makes it a politically shrewd move as well.
Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve has correctly pointed out that the Cabinet decision to do away with red beacons on top of official cars really needs only 10 minutes to implement, not 10 days. The fact that it took a decision at the very highest level and the provision of a 10-day grace period shows how attached our nation's red beacon-wallahs are to their flashing symbol of power. It will take them more than a week to come to terms with the idea of life without red lights. Or blue, which has been reserved for emergency services. Now, it has become that much harder to stand apart from the hoi polloi, especially when the latter number well over a billion. It will be a scary prospect, and some may need proper counselling about how to cope with their altered circumstances, having had that beacon lighting the way for most of their lives.
This soon-to-be-debeaconed category will need to think of other ways to assert their importance. Looking on the bright side, more than a few could try cadging study tours abroad this summer to see how politicians and senior civil servants elsewhere manage to do without.