Who is Sonia Gandhi? Or Laloo Prasad? Or even the oh! so smart, Rahul Gandhi? I definitely am not referring to their political parties but just as people who really are they? Citizens! Citizens who happen to be our representatives to run our country. We elect them either directly or otherwise because of their education, their sheer willingness to even come up and work for one’s country which most of us common people would not do. All agreed. But who would they be if it weren’t for us? Just another Sonia, Rahul, Prasad or whoever!
With the recent ‘austerity drive’ amongst many politicians, my mind began pondering. I pondered about perks the representatives of the country get to enjoy. Yes, they deserve it, but to what extent comes the next question. Perks, free time are all synonyms of a government job in our country for sure. I think we are still used to our grandparents or even parents advising us to take up a government job as it always meant to give us security and all the other ‘necessary evils’!
And the biggest gift of it all, at least here in Bangalore, HAS to be an easy breeze through the city’s horrendous traffic! I have experienced this is Chennai as well. The entire bandwagon is let through while the common man who actually made these ‘fellow common men’ famous, is made to wait whatever be the hurry. My question is, these ministers, politicians, their personal attendants, whoever are already known for being late to most meetings, functions et all. So what is the big deal of stopping citizens on the road and giving these guys all the space. They are already late, how does it matter if it is by 5 minutes or 50? They’d rather wait like any one of us and reach their destinations!
Last afternoon I was travelling by bus and all the vehicles including the one I was in were asked to stop for the obvious reason. I watched the little boy inside the bus pleading his mother to buy him a chocolate, a bus driver spitting out his ugh! chewable tobacco, a smart guy on his new Yamaha wiping a minuscule of dirt from his mirror. Twenty minutes passed by and there were no signs of the ‘VERY IMPORTANT PERSON’. People finally began getting restless. Initially the cops were in command. Now, the common men took over. One by one they began turning on their vehicles and honks began to pierce the cops’ ears! Lo! We were commanded to move on!
People in the bus did not hide their disappointment anymore. Obscenities were hurled at the unknown VIP and I couldn’t stop smiling! How I wish he/she were here in this bus I thought!
For those who don’t live in India and did not know about the incident involving the Prime Minister of the country himself, here it is:
Sumit Prakash Verma, who was 32, died after the vehicle carrying him to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research could not enter the emergency area in time for treatment. The PM was at that time visiting the hospital for its 30th convocation. (Source: dnaindia.com)
Post this, the PM wrote a letter of apology to the family of the deceased. The article also went on to quote on what former heads and police commissioners thought about the country’s VIP security systems. Good our PM apologized, but the life lost can never be got back. However, clichéd it sounds, it is a fact alright.
Things do not change over night and definitely not in India when it involves politics. But then I think officials must think of a way to keep up the importance which the government servants have to duly get but without troubling us, the common men! It would not hurt our representatives to wait for an extra 10 minutes at the signal and get on with their work just as us. They are also the country’s citizens after all…
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