LAUGH OR CRY  AT OUR  V.I.P’S ?

 It was a bad  day for United Airlines at an airport at Denver. There was only one receptionist to issue boarding cards to the dozens of travelers thronging the  counters.

In walked a pompous man, brushed his way through   the waiting agitated people, thumped the receptionist’s  table and demanded that he be immediately issued a ticket and ‘a first class one at that’.The receptionist was unfazed.

‘I will  try my best to give you  a first  class ticket but please join the queue’ she replied.

Not content with not being given V.I.P treatment the pompous man shouted in a way reminiscent of an Indian  V.I.P

‘Do you know who  I am?’

The receptionist  calmly spoke into the PA system ‘This gentleman wishes to know who he is .Can someone assist him please?”’

The crowd laughed to  the great embarrassment of the  pompous man.

‘ **** you’   he shouted.

‘Even for that you will have  to join the line’ she said,  still calm.

I narrate this episode in the context of an Indian M.P apparently coming  late to board an Air India  flight after the gates had been closed.  The pilot refused to take off . An argument ensued. The M.P was upset and threatened to report the pilot to the Privileges committee of the Rajya  Sabha. The pilot protested his innocence.  I am sure the great M.P  will have his own version of the incident but what I read in the website is as shown in the following link http://www.ibnlive.com/news/pilots-association-wants-kerala-mp-to-apologise/62979-3.html

The truth will never be out since an honorable M. P is involved and the media and ordinary  people are helpless against these  august people. I can also predict that no matter who is at fault the pilot will have to pay the price , he will be suspended for ‘misbehavior’  and even demoted to  Pavan hans where he will fly helicopters  even though he has been to Seattle or France and has been trained to fly the latest jets.

Contrast this with the way in which no matter how rich  or powerful or successful you are in the US you are treated the way everyone is treated. Even Bill Gates is subjected to security checks whenever he comes to  Congress for submitting his testimony . I wish we  did not do a hodge podge of things.  Amartya Sen remarked that India has learnt the worst aspects of socialism and capitalism .We have not learnt the way capitalism generates  competition ,rewards the best and  encourages dynamism . On the other hand were have not learnt even from  Cuba which has a fine education  and medicare system.

\We  have learnt the way the privileged people  in a communist country  [also called ‘oligarchs’] enjoy privileges denied to the  vast masses , and the greed that is the feature of unbridled capitalism.

K.R.RAVI

USA