Kalam takes frisks

Last week, employees of an American airline landed in serious trouble for doing their duty.

They went by the book and frisked all passengers, including former President Abdul Kalam, little realising that they would have politicians in this country soon baying for their blood.

Gentleman that he is, Kalam hasn’t said a word against the frisking, but almost everyone who sits in parliament wants Continental Airlines thrown out for the sin of insulting our nation.

The police have quickly taken the cue and filed an FIR against four employees of the airline. And these are the same policemen who will tell you, when you go to them in distress, that you should try the next police station.

But we should understand the outrage. Politicians in India believe they constitute the country. “Indira is India, India is Indira,” a Congressman’s notorious slogan during the Emergency, should give you a fair idea about their philosophy.

That is a philosophy that has percolated everywhere. The police, the public utility providers, and the bureaucracy believe they are in the personal service of the netas. Which is why, at offices and police stations, ordinary citizens are routinely harassed. Politicians get things done without standing in a queue or having to talk to nasty employee of the government.

Kalam is not a politician (he was a nuclear scientist before he was made President). But politicians are always quick to react to anything that threatens their privileges. If an airline could do this to Kalam, what would they do to MPs next? Tell them not to spit?

The irony of it all is that it happened to Kalam. Now, Kalam is a folk hero because he isn’t the sort to take ceremonial titles too seriously. He didn’t make stuffy speeches as President. He was filled with teacher-like enthusiasm the moment he saw children. When citizens wrote to him, he wrote back, and solved some of their problems in the process.

Kalam does not talk the language of divisiveness. He is a Muslim who reads the Kuran, but at the same time he loves things Brahminical: vegetarian food, classical Tamil literature, and the veena. Nor does he talk the language of privilege: he would go around talking to gardeners and other less privileged employees at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in some cases getting them to enrol their children in school. And he has returned to a life of simplicity since his retirement.

The staff of Continental Airlines would have violated the law in their country had they waived security checks for Kalam. But perhaps they will now learn a lesson from government employees in India, for whom VIP is god, and his word law. A good majority of our "government servants" just won't enforce the law for the rich and the privileged.

Kalam deserves a salaam, but more importantly, ordinary citizens of this country deserve a better deal.