Click to play videoNew Delhi: In India, lal batti (red beacon) spells power and along with lal battis the bigger your security cover, the greater your political status.
Take for example Union Railways Minister, Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri - Bihar's most fortified couple. One-hundred-and-ninety-five policemen guard them round the clock, and they have 10 escort vehicles and two bullet proof cars.
Fellow Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan also gets Z+ security. Not to be left behind, Sharad Yadav too demands and gets Z+ security.
But for Jayalalitha even Z+ is not enough. She has asked the Madras High Court for SPG protection that only the Prime Minister and the Gandhi family get. And if Amma has it, then can Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi be far behind?
Karuna was given NSG Black Cats security after he became a key Congress ally in 2006. The best part is that neither Karunanidhi or Jayalalithaa are currently on any terror hit-list and the only fear they have is of each other.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati took the game further, stripping political rivals of their lal battis and adding several to her security convoy. Mayawati has no less than 350 policemen protecting her every day, but the aam aadmi (common man) in UP is not impressed, saying that the drivers of her convoy are rude.
However, some politicians are beginning to realise that lal battis must go.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said, "If we actually believe that every single Indian life was worth fighting for, then we would not have systems that provide massive attention to VIPs and that focus on what we all know as the lal batti."
India's terror-struck citizens continue to slog on with threadbare security, so can the real politician now raise his hand and turn that lal batti off? That's the question everyone wants an answer to.
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