I was watching Rajdeep Sardesai getting into a blather on the VIP culture on CNN-IBN the other day. It appears that a Member of Parliament missed his connecting flight from Mumbai to Indore as his flight from Goa had been delayed. The Honourable MP had to spend the night in Mumbai. The DGCA has now asked the private airlines to give the same protocol facilities to the MPs that they enjoy on the state carrier. It was really entertaining watching the commentariat foaming at the mouth and ranting at the poor MPs.
Really, they are such soft targets. There is a beautiful line in Dirty Harry where Clint Eastwood in reply to his boss’s question, “do you know who I am?” replies, “You are a legend in your own mind.” How many times have you heard this, “don’t you know who I am?” The fact is, every Indian is a VIP in his own mind.
This is why, we curse everyone else on the road for jumping the signal or breaking traffic rules, while we ourselves overtake from the left, weave in and out of lanes and do everything for which we curse others, just because we are always in so much of a hurry. Do we Indians like to wait in a queue anywhere? We are all VIPs and want to jump at the head of any queue. At each point in life, we revel in being superior to others and our self worth is measured in how much more we are important compared to others around us.
Do we treat our domestic servants as equals? Don’t we provide security to people based not on threat perception but on status? Don’t our temples give preferential treatment to those who can secure it? Doesn’t the Railways sequester a portion of its seats in the name of VIP quota? Don’t our youth keep trying till their middle age to get into the hallowed portals of Civil Services to get the tag of IAS/IPS? Don’t we barricade ourselves in gated communities at the first opportunity where we can avail of all facilities unlike the common man in his dystopia? Don’t our journalists join other special people in getting plots and flats from the Government at throwaway prices? Have our judges not raised themselves above everyone else by the power of “contempt of court‟? Are not our top bureaucrats shielded from the laws? Then why deny the MPs and MLAs their “privilege‟?
What is the fun in being an MP or MLA if there is no privilege? Hence, instead of getting into a sanctimonious rage over the VIPs, we must embrace the VIP culure. Instead of saying that we are all “aam aadmi” the time has come to shamelessly admit that, yes- we are all VIPs.
(Disclaimer: The author is not a mere VIP. He insists that he be treated as a VVIP.)
Umesh Sharraf is an itinerant who is presently a government servant. He has taken up writing recently after having been at the receiving end from other writers all his life.