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End of red beacons on cars: Why I can't thank PM Modi enough

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Valson Thampu
Valson ThampuMay 01, 2017 | 18:02

End of red beacons on cars: Why I can't thank PM Modi enough

Many think that freedom of speech lies only in finding fault, in seeing nothing good. I am convinced that freedom is meaningless unless we can open our eyes to what is good and worthwhile all around us as well.

I must be as free to appreciate what is good and laudable in my prime minister as I am in expressing my dissent on what seems to me to be ill-conceived.

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One thing I have always appreciated in Narendra Modi is his genius for symbolism. Symbols speak to human psyche more resonantly than any other linguistic resource. True to style, Modi has chosen to launch his war on VIP culture on May Day, when the workers of the world — the invisible limbs of the body politic — are remembered and celebrated. Thank God, there is a day in a year to pay lip-service to dignity of labour.

Now, to Modi’s uncanny insight.

There is a nexus between VIP culture and the erosion of dignity of labour. VIP culture idolises positions, not work; status, not service. In the case of commercial sex workers there is a correlation between red light and the work they do. But in the case of our VIPs there is none. If at all there is, it is mostly a negative correlation. Otherwise, why should Yogi Adityanath ask his babus to work or to quit (I rather like that!).

Not surprisingly, therefore, the PM wants the prevailing mindset also to disappear with the VIP beacons. The logic for this is not hard to unravel. VIP culture has nothing to do with the work these self-inflated personages do, just as VIP security has little to do with their physical insecurity. Both are symbols of mythological importance. Symbols need to be pitted against symbols. Hence, the shrewd choice of May Day.

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PM wants the prevailing mindset also to disappear with the VIP beacons.

The root of VIP culture, as Modi knows, lies deep in history. It stems from the assumption that the ruling elite comprise a different order of humanity. There needs to be, hence, a barrier between them and others. Our presumptuous potentates of modern day democracy deem themselves to be like dictators of ancient times.

When kings and emperors moved, the commoners were kept at bay. The importance of kings had to be proved, not on the scale of their achievements, but on the scale of the demonstrated worthlessness of the subjects. Beside a Nobel Laureate a government babu, a puny politician, is an ordinary creature. But vis-à-vis the rest of us, he has dropped from heaven via cosmic wombs.

In olden days, kings used to trace their pedigree back to gods, as Alexander the Great did. Then came the time when kings and queens claimed to be God’s deputies, divinely ordained to rule over their subjects (this was further vitiated by dynastic rule based on primogeniture, which amounted to de facto reservation at the top for mostly stupid and incapable individuals). There was, hence, a genealogical discontinuity between them and the common folk. Optimum physical separation — a sort of ceremonially grandiloquent apartheid — needed to be maintained from the hoi polloi.

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The curse of VIP culture is that it kills the spirit of public service. As citizens it does not matter to us if some vane or neurotic character, smarting under a sense of low self-worth and inferiority complex, wants to flaunt and inflict his borrowed importance on the public. If their sirens do not exceed 95 decibels and their beacons are not intense enough to hurt our eyes, it should matter no more than a fleeting nuisance. I have seen mad people dressing themselves in extremely outlandish and lurid fashions and singing senseless songs at the pitch of their voices. It did not bother me one bit.

Where the VIP culture bites us — as the PM seems to have realised — is that it breeds contempt towards citizens in those who are meant to be public servants. Under the distorting obscenity of VIP culture, they treat us as their servants.

I have moved in the corridors of power long enough to tell you that in years I have not seen anyone who sees himself as a public servant! The cheap actors of VIP vaudeville turn Indian democracy into a de facto oligarchy. It is well and truly said that politicians may rule the country, but it is bureaucrats who run the country.

How well they run the country “for the people” nobody needs to tell us.

Modi abolished the Planning Commission. A far greater challenge is to abolish the IAS. So long as this outdated factory for manufacturing VIPs remains, there will be no change even if red lights disappear.

Over 40 years I have noticed one thing: among all students of St Stephen’s it is the least service-minded and most self-centred that covet a foothold in the Civil Services. They become public servants!

I have a humble suggestion for Modi. It is not enough even to change the mindset, as indeed it needs to be eradicated. What is essential is that those in governance be required to justify their incumbency in terms of delivering services to the people. Take just one aspect of our national malady.

Why is it that we are so poor in implementing our schemes and projects?

How come no accountability is ever fixed for this crime against the people, and exemplary corrective action not initiated?

The need of the hour is to effect a radical mindset change from vanity to work, from power to meaningful patriotism, from beacon light to the light of fellow feeling vis-à-vis citizens as a whole. That is the essence of Gandhi’s talisman.

Modi must push the agenda of national integration. VIP culture is a good starting point. India is split into two: beacon lights and boisterous sirens belong to glittering India. Citizens belong to “incredible Bharat”. Tourism department has got it wrong. It is not India, it is people’s Bharat that is truly incredible.

I’m sure Modi knows the difference between symbols and tokens. If declaring war on VIP culture — which I believe only he can do at present — on May Day is to remain a resonant symbol and not pale into mere tokenism, Modi needs to bridge India and Bharat. Development needs to be re-conceived as development of the people, with emphasis on education and health.

As long a majority of Indian citizens languish in ill-health, illiteracy or useless literacy, VIP mindset will stay. It may lie low for a while but return with a vengeance in quick time, like black money vis-à-vis demonetisation.

The seed of VIP culture is not the importance or grandeur of the wheeler-dealers of power and pelf. It is the pathetic under-development and presumed worthlessness of the Indian citizen.

Why do you think VIP culture is conspicuous by its absence in Scandinavian countries? If a minister or babu were to behave, like they do in this country, in Sweden, arrangements would be made for his head to be examined. Ministers and leaders in sane societies know that they too are human beings, like the citizens they meet on the streets.

That’s where, Modi, we need to reach.

Please try! 

Last updated: May 01, 2017 | 18:02
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