EPI: Founding Stone of New India

The current government has continuously been taxing itself to introduce some ice breaking reforms both in the economic and political landscape of the country. The decision to go away with the beacons is one such decision taken by the Indian government recently.  Our honorable Prime Minister, Sri. Narendra Modi informed the nation about the decision taken in a union cabinet meeting by a tweet that read ‘Every Indian is special. Every Indian is a VIP.’

In his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' he said that the concept of VIP should be replaced with "EPI", meaning "Every Person is Important". He further added "I did not know that people have so much contempt for the VIP culture before we took the decision recently banning use of red beacons on vehicles of ministers and others,"

However only time would tell how far this symbolic decision to get rid of the beacons would be able to annihilate the VIP culture from the mind of the so called VIPs.  As of now, it seems that it would take a lot of time to eradicate the VIP culture from the mindset of these VIPs. Recent cases of various politicians’ and VIPs’ misbehavior with the flight crew, helping staff or the toll staff show how deep the roots of VIP culture have been penetrated into the minds of our VIPs and we need more efforts than these administrative decisions to obliterate them. Even the Prime Minister iterated this fact by saying "Although the 'lal batti' is gone now, nobody can claim that because of this, the VIP culture which has gone into the mindset would have also gone," he said.

Now that government has come up with a decision to end the VIP culture that has been burgeoning since independence, it must also make sure that this decision is implemented at all the levels. Our bureaucracy and politicians must also understand that before being a VIP they are the citizens of this country and must treat their fellow citizens equally and respectfully. Only then we would be able to justify the idea of new India which has been suggested by our Prime Minister at various platforms.