Austerity lessons for posterity

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Mayors of cities are often amongst the most boring people you can ever meet. Growing up in Calcutta, the Mayor was almost always so pro-establishment, that you didn't even care if he had an opinion because you were certain it would be someone else's voice as it were. Which is why London last week was so refreshing.

Rushing to meet a group of us, attending Subodh Gupta's exhibition opening was Boris Johnson, who had to go through the travails of London's evening rush-hour traffic only because he had a flashing red light. The problem was this flashing red light was on the back of his helmet and not atop some Government car so no one really cared who this cyclist was.

Yes, Boris Johnson, the present Mayor of London goes to work on a bicycle and wears the statutory helmet, which has a red light flashing on its rear only to warn other vehicles, but is not a statement of power or for that matter of authority. He was in a suit and like most Londoners, had to carefully select which of the lamp-posts on Bond Street, he could chain his bicycle to. And didn't exude the arrogance of our ministers and bureaucrats who think it is their birthright to do as they please. For those of you who don't know, Boris is an accomplished intellectual, former Editor of The Spectator and one of the most prominent Tories in England. But that is not his only claim to fame. He came across not just as a robust mind but an equally popular one, so it was not surprising to find people queuing up to take photographs with him or for that matter seeking his autograph. There were no security guards, not even the London Bobby for either comfort or pretence. And this is the heart of the matter.

I personally laud what Sonia Gandhi has done as far as austerity is concerned and not for a moment am I suggesting that S M Krishna and Shashi Tharoor are further punished by even taking away their official cars. But then austerity cannot be imposed. It must come from within like it did for Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and that doyen of Bengal, Dr B C Roy.

The problem with India is that austerity is often seen as de-linked from the supremacy of the office that people hold. The red-light syndrome, which we see enough of in Delhi and elsewhere is symptomatic of this lack of confidence that some of our politicians have. I have no issue with security cover for those who are on hit-lists and so on. But for some of our MPs and bureaucrats to brazenly abuse the power they have, is unforgivable. And it will be more than an austerity drive that will change all of this. Of what use is it to me as a taxpayer, to see my country's Foreign Minister travel to New York for the UN General Assembly in business class, when he takes an army of assistants with him and what's worse, stays holed up at expensive suites?

This whole movement that has begun with the active intervention of Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi cannot be allowed to transcend into tokenism if the attitude itself does not change. This is the bigger test that some of our people-in-power will have to pass. And the attitude has a lot to do with the fact that the office you hold is not defined by the security cover you have or for that matter, the cavalcade of cars, which accompany you whenever you leave home. In that respect, another tremendous role model is P Chidambaram who is a sharp contrast to the bumbling Shivraj Patil who had more security cover for his suits than what he genuinely needed. The fact that India's Home Minister is leading by example is something that should be enough of a practice for most to follow.

Boris Johnson has gone one step further. He has advised David Cameron (tipped to be Britain's next Prime Minister) that all cabinet ministers in a Tory Government should have no official cars and instead there should be a pool of cars from which they can requisition a car, should they need one, for official use. A far cry from the garages that ministerial homes have in Delhi. And to my mind, the effect that this will have will be two-fold. It will set an example as also help conserve energy: both of which India needs as desperately if not more.

So may I suggest, Mrs Gandhi, that your next call is to eliminate the concept of red-lights and white Ambassadors and instead create a car pool and for the younger lot in the cabinet, prod them into getting on top of a bicycle? This may also force India's political parties to choose people who are young enough to ride a bicycle, if nothing else!