How about a VIP world?

It is bad enough, as it is, for the ordinary citizens to be ignored, shuffled around and made to wait for hours with closed roads and clogged traffic. And now to be relegated to second-class citizens through a policy to cater to the VIPs is something that we fully reject. It reveals a most anti-people mentality as can be imagined.

The idea of a separate lane for VIPs is not only bizarre, and unrealistic given the density of vehicles on the roads, it is also reflective of an exclusivist mindset that is totally bereft of any concern for the public. We wonder if the snobbish and supercilious culture is not in conflict with the ethos of democracy in a people's republic. It is shocking that not the welfare of the people but of those that are there to serve the people, which is behind the ludicrous suggestion.

Admittedly, Dhaka is the largest city in the country. Forty percent of the country's economy is concentrated here. At least a hundred thousand vehicles hit the streets every year, outrunning the construction of roads in the Capital. Most of the city comes virtually to a standstill during a VVIP movement. But the rationale proffered in support of the idea of a separate lane for the VIPs, that it will curb the VIP tendency to use the wrong side of the road, is shallow. Curbing their bad tendency cannot mean more sufferings for the common man. As for the use of the "VIP Lane" by ambulances and fire brigade, provision for rapid transport and metro rail has been recommended in the Strategic Transport Plan which can be used by other service providers also.

Instead of spending money on accelerating the movement of VIPs, the government should dedicate both energy and money and give priority to speed up the movement of the working masses who need to get to their work places timely. They are the ones that keep our economy and the country moving. As of now, more than 3 million work-hours and billions of dollars are lost annually because of traffic jams. And we can follow our neighbour's lead where PM Modi had announced last year that not a few but every person is important.