PATNA: The Centre’s decision to ban from May 1 the use of red beacons atop the vehicles of dignitaries and government officials has few takers among ministers in the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.
While the chief minister himself and his deputy Tejaswi Yadav do not use cars with red beacons, all other ministers do. Sources said the Centre’s announcement was discussed in passing at the cabinet meeting chaired by Nitish Kumar Wednesday and most ministers, including the chief minister himself, dismissed it as hyper-populist measure of little consequence.
Some ministers, emerging from the meeting, sounded unwilling to stop using red beacon lights on their cars.
“I will not stop using them. I will think about it only if the state government takes a decision about it,” said Abdul Jalil Mastan, the excise minister. The Congress leader had kicked up a controversy last month by instigating people at a public meeting to beat photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with shoes, an act for which he had to apologize later.
Energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav of the JD(U) said it was not necessary that Bihar’s ministers follow the Union cabinet’s decision.
“The Centre has its own laws and the states have their own. This is not even a law, it is an executive order. It is not necessary that states follow every order passed by the Centre,” said Bijendra Yadav.
Tejaswi Yadav said: “Everyone has their own view about it. I myself do not use red beacons. My parents (Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi), when they were chief ministers, also did not use them.”
His elder brother and health minister Tej Pratap Yadav did not reply when asked if he would stop using red beacons in his car, but when asked what he thought about VIP culture, the 28-year-old minister shot back: “How can you say it is VIP culture? How can you take the leaders of the people out of the hearts of the people?