Jayant Patil, Maharashtra MLC

In the post-Kejriwal era of political discourse, two things have become paramount: a minister has to appear frugal and ‘VVIP culture’ has to be abandoned, or at least the appearance of it. Occasionally they will slip. This happened with Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who allegedly had a flight delayed so that a member of his entourage could get his forgotten passport.

Last week, this near-perfect act of a public relations pantomime developed cracks and revealed the sense of entitlement that public servants assume. As he walked towards his workplace, Jayant Patil, a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) of Maharashtra, was irked when he saw policemen speaking on their mobile phones. Offended at not being the cynosure of all eyes, Patil decided to make it a legislative issue. In the name of ‘point of propriety’, he demanded that the police personnel ‘show respect’ to him.

“It is an insult of legislators… All police personnel should salute not only ministers but also all MLCs and MLAs,” raged Patil. His words received rousing support from his colleagues and the topic ended with a promise to schedule a meeting on the issue soon.

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