The jury is still out on whether Vijay Goel, India’s sports minister, behaved improperly or not in the Olympics’ playing arena. The Olympic organizing committee has alleged that Mr Goel and his entourage throw their weight around and go into areas where they are not permitted. Mr Goel has protested his innocence. This kerfuffle, however, is a pointer to one strand of the culture prevailing in India. To use a shorthand: this is the VIP culture, or the culture of people who assume their importance and their power. Of course, politicians are on the top of the list of these self-styled very important people. They are followed very closely by bureaucrats, big and small, and even police officers. This parading of self-importance often extends to spouses as well. It hardly needs to be added that there are some politicians and bureaucrats who are important and powerful by dint of the office they hold. But there are other relatively minor figures in the hierarchy of power who assume a position far higher than their station. This is a common phenomenon in India.

The most noticeable expression of this phenomenon is in the use of the beacon on top of cars. But there are other features of privileged behaviour: asking for favours, like tickets for shows and concerts, moving around with an entourage of aides and flunkies and, most common of all, the jumping of queues in airports and other places. Ministers are even known to have held up flights, causing inconvenience to other passengers. The underlying assumption in this kind of behaviour is that an office holder, elected or otherwise, in government is entitled to special treatment because he is more equal than others. In a democracy, this is a completely misplaced assumption. This kind of behaviour is perceived, and rightly so, as an abuse of power and position. It is an articulation of the arrogance of power. Elected representatives of the people, even when they become ministers, are expected to serve those who elected them. They are not ministers or legislators to lord it over the common people. Bureaucrats are meant to govern. Securing favours and the abuse of power do not, by any stretch of the imagination, promote good governance. On the contrary, they earn the entire political class a bad name.

The show of superiority — the Orwellian all men are equal, some are more equal than others — is so pervasive that it has become almost impossible to think of an alternative to it. Even very well-meaning individuals, once they become a part of the official hierarchy, almost unwittingly fall victim to it. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to believe, prima facie, that Mr Goel and his entourage are innocent of impropriety. Throwing one’s weight around comes so easily — almost naturally — to such people that they forgot they are not in India but at the Olympic Games.