“Generally speaking, in our country there exists an atmosphere of disdain towards the VIP culture. But that it runs so very deep, I just experienced, when the government recently decided that no person in India, whatsoever his status might be, will not move with a red beacon atop his vehicle. In a way it had become a symbol of the VIP culture. Experience tells us that whereas the red beacon used to be fixed atop the vehicle, atop the car, slowly & steadily it permeated into the psyche and got firmly entrenched in the mindset. The red beacon now has gone for good but nobody can say with certainty that the same in the mindset has also disappeared. I have received a very interesting phone call. Though the caller has expressed the same apprehension. One can discern from this phone call that common men detest these tendencies. They feel distanced.”

-- from prime minister Narendra Modi’s radio address, ‘Mann ki Baat’, April 30.