Menace of VIP, VVIP culture; common man suffers because of privileges they enjoy

Soon after the Maha Kumbh stampede, the Uttar Pradesh government decided to withdraw the validity of VIP passes on important days when the huge crowds surge hugely. This applied to a day preceding the important days and a day later. Implied in this is a hint that among other possible reasons, VIP arrangements were problematic.

We are not discussing, however, the causes of that gory night’s event but are focusing on the Very Important Person issue. They are a public nuisance. The VIPs detract from the purpose of events in which people want to participate and create hurdles in their intent. At events where the species emerges, the discomfort of the other intensifies.

There are VIPs and there are VVIPs, the second “very” being an intensifier. The second category by their very status has to precede the VIP but we tend to feel the presence of the VIP more than we do the VVIPs. The VVIPs are holders of constitutional positions and likely at more risk because of that and we bow to their requirements. Or that is how I see it.

The sensitivity of the positions they hold, the roles they perform and the rung in the official protocol determines their status. The VVIPs of that category rightly require security, especially in a worsening security environment. The taxpayers rightly fund it and citizens have to accept any consequential inconveniences. Our commercial flights could be delayed; roads may be cleared, but these have to be taken in our stride.

The problem comes when the administration of states and federal level decide on who goes on the VIP – not VVIP – list. It is taken that there is a distinct class of people who deserve some privileges that the ordinary doesn’t. The ordinary folks are hustled aside because a VIP is walking through an area where you want to be. Say, for instance, a popularly elected MLA or an MP.

There is this instance of the late 1970s where an MLA, recently elected then, was sitting atop, not at, a sturdy teak table in the Guntakal railway station in Andhra Pradesh. He had a newly issued licenced pistol he was twirling. Since I knew him, he told me that with the weapon in his hand, “he can serve the people better.” The absurdity of it struck me but not him that he even dared say that.

Let us briefly hark back to the Kumbh arrangements. Areas were segregated for VIPs and VVIPs where the purifying bath could be had without the presence of the hoi polloi. VVIPs however would have special arrangements, of course, but the VIPs? The instructions to suspend the VIP passes and ensure they are strictly enforced were a giveaway about who constituted that class.

Let us guess who could be using the passes. They are issued to those who have contacts. One could obtain one if one knew someone who wielded any authority or held an important position in an influential sphere. It could be obtained by a person with their help so that one’s neighbour’s brother-in-law’s cousin’s friend could access a facility without struggling among the masses.

Such beneficiaries are actually of the masses. One may recall how the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam had cancelled “VIP break darshan during the ensuing summer, thereby ensuring more darshan time to the common devotees” last summer. A “break darshan” is one where somebody important comes and has a right of way. This once, the common man’s woes were recognised.

Some temples do have the facility of paying for special tickets which gives the devotee the right of precedence to seek the Lord’s blessings. It would be educative to know if other places of worship of other religions too have this arrangement. On a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, I had to leave my footwear at a counter. It was picked up by a sevadar who had cleaned it by the time I returned to reclaim it. When asked, he was a serving IAS officer from someplace. This officer could be the one who determines if anyone among the masses is a VIP or not.

Do you recall Arvind Kejriwal’s refusal to accept an official car, preferring his small car, for use as a chief minister for the first time? He wanted to break this culture of VIPs because, at that time, he was an aam aadmi (common man) who broke the traditional mould of the powerful. He was mocked. When he moved into a palatial official residence, he was accused of not being common. That is the irony.