Aam VIP

Call it the Aam Aadmi Party effect but the newly-elected leader of the opposition in Chhattisgarh, T S Singhdeo, has decided to do away with the red beacon on his official vehicle. But not immediately - only after two months! The logic for this wait reflects how little he has understood the import of the gesture - or, indeed, how regressive his thinking remains despite having fought a democratic election. In these two months, he has said, he will take "the people's opinion". Which "people"? Singhdeo is a scion of the former princely state of Sarguja and he wants his "subjects" to see him moving around in a red-beaconed vehicle. Of course, Sarguja's "subjects" are not new to the concept of a VIP in the former ruling family since M S Singhdeo, T S Singhdeo's father, was the chief secretary of undivided Madhya Pradesh. T S Singhdeo will, however, hold a VIP position for the first time, so he wants to enjoy the perk for two months and travel the length and breadth of Sarguja and give up the status symbol if the people want him to do so.