Things people do to be in the good books of a Minister

Today there is a picture in The Hindu (Bangalore edition) where Dr. Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Urban Development is being taken to some place and some ladies are showering his path with rose petals/flowers.

Although “Atithi Devo Bhava” has been our guiding philosophy with respect to how guests should be treated, this philosophy sometimes is given too much importance in case of receiving, welcoming, treating our Ministers. Who is Jaipal Reddy? Why does he deserve such a treatment? Who is it that is giving him such a treatment? Why are we stooping to such low levels? These are the questions that need to be asked.

It is disgusting that we resort to such low levels to be in the good books of a Minister. May be it is the people who need to be questioned here. It is unlikely that the Ministers ask for such treatments. It is more the people involved in organizing the events who need to answer these questions.

Also, a question needs to be asked with respect to who are the ladies who are showering rose petals in Dr. Reddy’s path. For all you know they belong to the locality’s government school who have been asked to leave behind their household chores on a Sunday to welcome a Minister. After all apart from teaching students the other default responsibilities of a government teacher is to welcome Ministers by showering rose petals in their path, serve them coffee, go door to door & ask people how many kids they have during census & tick off names from a sheet at the voting center at the time of elections. No wonder the quality of teaching at government schools is at the level it is.

Of course we can never quantify the benefits of keeping a Minister happy. One never knows when it will yield results & hence we continue to please them by doing things like this. Seen how people fall at Jayalalitha’s feet? Do you think they are doing this out of respect for her as an individual? No it is out of respect for the position that she holds. It is out of respect for the power that position yields. By the way falling at the Ministers feet is passé; the new in thing to be in the good books of Ministers is to nominate them to the Nobel Peace Prize. That is what a Chennai based organization did. They nominated Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, we can only wish her the best of luck.

Politicians in India are like Demigods. That is the sad truth and a truth that we have to live with. It is sad that people we elect to represent us are treated like this when it should be the other way round. The Ministers should shower our path with rose petals of jobs, better roads, drinking water, electricity & so on.

This said there are some positive things that the new Karnataka Chief Minister has put forth. He ordered his party men to take off all his larger than life posters as soon as he became the CM. Then a few days later revealed that he would go around the city to check on its issues only in the night so as to not inconvenience the common man during the day.

These are good signs from a young CM. How about taking it a little further & laying down some guidelines in terms of how a Minister is welcomed & treated at official functions?