Does A Ban On Red Beacons Signal The End Of India’s VIP Culture?

The 'lal batti' worked wonders in India. For years, VIPs with red beacons on their cars skipped queues, traffic lights and even toll plazas across the country. So when the Union Cabinet, earlier this week, decided to do away with red beacons from all official vehicles starting May 1, citizens lauded it as a welcome move.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Cabinet will also amend rules related to the use of blue beacons and he clarified that only emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire tenders and police cars will be permitted to do so.

Every Indian is special. Every Indian is a VIP. https://t.co/epXuRdaSmY

April 19, 2017

But pulling the plug on red beacons was probably largely a symbolic gesture for there's a lot more that fuels India's VIP culture.

To be sure, VIPs will continue to travel in a motorcade, often accompanied by several police cars for security. Technically, these police cars will still be allowed to use a blue beacon. So, it remains to be seen if officials and their security cars will still be allowed to jump signals, cut lanes and even cordon off roads in some cases.

That's not all. While Jaitley mentioned red and blue beacons, he didn't mention whether bureaucrats and officers will still be allowed to use amber coloured beacons on their cars, except “in premises like airports, ports, mines and project sites without going outside the said premises on to public roads.”

So, this week, we took to the streets of Mumbai to find out what Mumbaikars think about the red beacon ban and whether they are convinced that this is the beginning of the end of VIP culture in India. As always, we received a mixed bag of responses.

Share

• Twitter
• WhatsApp
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Email