It Is After All A Matter Of Status Cou.

Isn’t it for last 9 days that we fail to see even an hour’s work being performed in our parliament? Isn’t it that the partisan politics and personal benefits have taken a new low and virtually stagnated the current parliament session to some unachievable paralysis? The session in which the government promised to accomplish much more than they possibly have done in their last half a dozen year of misrule is in shambles again. No work done and looking at the proceedings, things don’t seem to change in near future either. The session for which the entire nation waited with bated breath as it is supposed to be the session where the Jan Lokpal was planned to be legislated is being ruined by some unnecessary Halla Gulla of BJP and an equally unnecessary and ill-timed announcement of 51% FDI nonsense in retail sector by the Congress to begin with.

At this juncture, when it is alleged that the tax payers are losing a whopping 2 crore for every nonfunctional day at the parliament and issues like Jan Lokpal are waiting to be discussed; shouldn’t our politicians be putting their efforts to break the unnecessary logjam? But alas, that is what far from being happening. Rather being concerned about the nonfunctioning of the parliament, our able politicians are busy convincing through their privilege committee to amend laws in the Motor Vehicle Act to allow member of parliaments to sport red light atop their official vehicles.

Now before we get outraged by such nonchalant behavior of our politicians towards us and our interest, I prefer to take a pause and rethink over the option of mine; if I should swear at them or be rational for a change and accept the facts?

We all love status cou. Don’t we? The pan India phenomenon where almost all of us are seen busy showing one upmanship in our immediate circle all the bloody time, why blame the politicians if they follow the same suite where sporting a red light atop their vehicles is just one avenue to flaunt their status cou? We love to act, enact, flaunt our so called contacts to one and all and demand respect for having a distant relative who happens to be a biggie in political circle. Doesn’t matter if we have met the relative in question in person ever or the last time we met was when Dinosaurs used to roam around this planet; but we love to flaunt as if we don’t have our breakfast without seeing each other’s face.

How many times you have seen that there are poor souls like you and many others who are made to stand in a queue under scorching sun while there are privileged few who were allowed to jump the queue? If that is not good enough, the privileged ones are seen flaunting their achievement and try their best to let all who are still standing in the queue know who the boss is. Breaking the rule with help of cronies from the power circle is what we all of us Indians love. We conveniently get our train tickets confirmed by using politician quota while easily neglecting the genuinely deserving ticket holders, just because they don’t know anyone who can flash his/her status cou for them.

We love to be different and superior from the crowd, even if it means breaking few laws here and there. We feel ashamed if we have to stand in a queue along with sweaty average man to get our things done. We get angry if somebody doesn’t bow down his head after hearing us say – ‘ Jaanta Hai Mera Baap Kaun Hai’. If we love the joy and power of being different and superior and are capable to break the law and yet be unquestioned and shameless enough to flaunt it then why not the politicians for whom status cou is all but their very existence in this planet?

As it is questioning about logic to our beloved politicians is as fruitful as sending Ravindra Jadeja in the power play overs and dangerous too. A current Chief Minister serving his second stint is an example of what can happen when you start asking uncomfortable questions to our politicians and start looking for logic in their actions. No sooner he took oath for the first time B.C.Khanduri of Uttaranchal had to step down because his own MLAs seemed grossly disappointed with him as he urged them to shed away that red light and start behaving like a common man so that they can be closer to the realty. I am sure people like Mr. Khanduri are far and few. A genuine and applauding statement got the flack of its life from his own men just because it interfered with the status cou of the undeserving lot.

And honestly I don’t see a reason why our MPs shouldn’t have the red light on their cars. We all love some show of strength, so does our politicians, which in a way proves another point – they are still human beings. The red light becomes a more paramount issue for them when they see various government employees (much junior in ranks to them) flaunting the same for ages in their vehicle and yet are equally corrupt and useless for the nation.

For once I would cringe to see us shedding our typical Indian mentality of politician bashing and admit the demand of our MPs for the red light is genuine, if not logical or deserving. We all love the status cou and so as our elected representatives. Won’t all of us would love to put the same on our cars, bikes, cycles, provided we are allowed to?