Pomp & circumstance

It isn’t bad,driving through town with Tony (Blair).” So said Martin Amis,travelling with the former British prime minister in his car,as policemen buzzed past to liberate the road ahead. Maybe “that’s why Tony looked so young — 10 years without any traffic”. But that’s nothing,compared to the shows of government grandeur that we can put up in India. Recently,26 governors and three lieutenant-governors met in Delhi for the 43rd conference of governors,hosted by the president. Over the two days of the conference,they bedazzled Delhi with their luxury cars,elaborate retinues and security escorts. Some of them were virtual phalanxes — moving through the city several times a day,from the conference to various state bhavans. Traffic police scrambled to arrange for these Very Important People to travel smoothly,even as regular traffic patiently waited.

Long-time Delhi residents may be entirely used to this — after all,the city was explicitly designed by Lutyens as a stage for the performance of power. The government’s residences are arranged in concentric circles,hierarchy displayed by proximity to the central acropolis. But that was then,when colonial power needed to signal its lofty distance from those it ruled over. Nearly 65 years on,why are we still stuck with these vestigial displays of imperial mystique? Of course,given that governors are the ceremonial heads of our states,you could argue that protocol is a large part of the job description. But protocol in a democracy is not meant to estrange the governors from the governed. Most democracies,at least by now,pride themselves on eschewing pomp,in cultivating direct lines to the people,in choosing informality wherever possible. In India though,power is communicated through stuffy ceremony,by gliding over waiting lines,by entering and exiting through special portals —in short,by establishing distance from other citizens.

To have to wait as aloof motorcades of important people drive past is to be reminded of your subjection. That is not how citizens of a democracy should be made to feel.