Government allows rampant abuse of beacons
With the Government showing almost no interest whatsoever in containing the rampant abuse of the red beacons and sirens by every other two pence neta and his babu, the Supreme Court has once again had to threaten to step into the executive's territory to get the job done. And so it is that on Monday, the apex court warned the Government that unless it took immediate steps to curb the menace as well as tightened the rules in this matter, it would issue a “one line order” to remove the beacons. The admonishment comes four months after the Supreme Court had asked the Government to revise its list of dignitaries who are allowed to use the red beacon on their official vehicles. On April 4, the apex court had given both the Union Government as well as the State Governments till August 5 to accordingly amend the Motor Vehicles Act. The Union Government had responded, as expected, by setting up an inter-ministerial group to look into the red beacon. But of course, the group has been unable to come to a consensus on the matter. The situation is much the same at the State level as well. After all, how do you tell a certain category of Very Important Persons that, well, they are not that important anymore — or at least, not important to enough to merit a red beacon atop their carIJ
And this is precisely where the problem lies — the red beacon and siren may have once been granted as a security measure but today it is an ubiquitous status symbol. In India, nothing screams ‘important' more than a lal batti, even (if not moreso) when placed atop the antiquated Ambassador. In fact, as the apex court noted earlier this year, these days even village sarpanches and mukhiyas have been known to sport lal battis — in clear violation of the rules. But the misuse of lal battis is just one example of a larger social malaise. Higher up the power ladder, it is the number of body guards and the level of security cover that the Government provides which becomes an important status symbol. No wonder the list of dignitaries enjoying Z-category security has grown at an alarming rate. In fact, Union Home Minister SushilKumar Shinde is known to be particularly generous when it comes to adding new members to the security list. Most recently, he has included the likes of Mukesh Ambani, Buta Singh, Sachin Pilot and Beni Prasad Verma. In doing so, he has in fact reversed the work done by his predecessor who had drastically reduced the list of those provided special protection. Mr P Chidambaram had also recommended that only the National Security Guard be employed for the protection of VIPs but Mr Shinde has brought back the CRPF and CISF on VIP duty as well, no matter that their services could have been better utilised elsewhere. Clearly, the Government has no clear policy when it comes to the security of VIPs (which is surely a serious matter), while the political establishment has made a mockery of the system by reducing it to a status symbol.