Meghalaya’s youth are angry at the VIP culture which demands that public servants get past the public even when a traffic jam makes forward movement of traffic well nigh impossible. Much has been said about the use of sirens and red lights on vehicles and while the Supreme Court has made it amply clear as to the list of VIPs that deserve to move around with the blaring siren for clearing traffic, the point is that the very idea of a few people being treated as VIPs is itself undemocratic, when the real power holders are the people themselves. Ministers forget that they are to minister to the public and are not to be served upon like royalty. Unless this VIP culture is dumped India will continue to be a country where hierarchy remains the predominant feature and some people will always ride roughshod over others. However, it is not only in a traffic jam that VIPs throw their weight around.
At every function big or small, a VIP who should be speaking last will ensure that he jumps the queue of speakers, deliver his/her precious piece and leave the function without any respect for other speakers and for the function itself. When a VIP is invited to a function the person already knows how much time he/she has to invest in it. Organisations invite a VIP not because they want to hear what the person says but mainly to raise the stature of the function. The least that the VIP who is actually a public servant, should be doing is to sit through the function. Effective time management ensures that the VIP has allocated time for a particular meeting/function and that he/she does not need to rush out from the middle of an event to attend another meeting.
Another point worth noting is the length of a VIP’s speech. Most VIPs today understand that the attention span of people addicted to their mobile phones and social media is dwindling to less than a minute. A recent study conducted by Microsoft found that the average human attention span is down to eight seconds from 12 when it was originally measured in 2000. This should inform every speaker about the need to prepare his/her speech and to make it incisive and precise. Only the best of speakers can hold the attention of listeners for over five minutes without them checking their mobile phones. Often people are forced to listen to a VIP even when nothing of substance is being said. What a waste of time. It’s time to dismantle the word VIP and give power back to the people.