Every time a VIP breezes past those fretting in these queues, he gets curses and so does the entire political class. So brazen has this phenomenon got now that at airport security counters, policemen routinely paste government circulars listing the “dignitaries” who should not be frisked. These include ministers, judges, ambassadors, foreign official delegates, SPG protectees which mainly means current and former prime ministers and their families. The last entry on these lists is a name, Robert Vadra, “when accompanying SPG protectors”. Now anybody who knows Robert even casually or sees him in a restaurant, at a party, in a shop, knows that he is a simple, unassuming, even understated guy. You will never see him throwing his weight around. Yet, the sarkari mind, steeped in the VIP culture, puts him in a hall of fame he would rather be out of. Lakhs of people pass by airport security every day looking at that silly memo.

EVEN more ridiculous, as this newspaper reported last week, is the phenomenon of the National Highway Authority of India installing giant signboards at its toll plazas listing those with the privilege of toll free travel. The entry at the top of that list is the President of India, followed by a whole panoply of sarkari functionaries. Now, first of all, why should they travel without paying the toll? Second, if the President of India was really driving by, do you expect him to point out the signboard to the toll plaza attendant so that he could wave him through?

... contd.