The day India announced surgical strikes against Pakistan, I had gone
to the Dehradun Airport to receive some guests. Having parked in the
parking lot which is hardly 70-80 metres from the main building, I
walked into at least 30-40 vehicles parked, all illegally in front of
the main building. These were parked on both sides of the road, many
even double parking. Almost half of these were the private taxis with
yellow number plates, but the rest were all private vehicles, many with
the occupants sitting inside the vehicles. What was more exasperating
however, was the brazen flouting of rules, for I counted at least 4 big
signages, some right next to these vehicles declaring the zone to be a
no parking with a fine mentioned.
So I approached the CISF soldier who appeared to be the boss. When I enquired about the illegal parking he threw up his hands in despair. His complaint was that no one listens. And his soldiers who were armed with guns at a state of readiness, have got fed up asking the people to move the vehicles into the parking lot.
As if to demonstrate his point he went over to a car with two smartly dressed, middle aged gentlemen occupying the front seats. He politely asked them to move on but first they ignored him. When he became a bit firm, they simply rolled down the window and acted as if they did not know what is wrong in parking there. At this stage the CISF person told him clearly that this is no parking area, there is no flight that has landed, so they better move on to the parking lot. The response was typical. Why doesn’t he ask the others to move and what’s wrong in waiting at that spot. I was appalled at this behaviour of our aam admi and spoke to him firmly stating that this behaviour does not befit an educated person like him. Very grudgingly the gentlemen then made an attempt to move. Almost a similar story was repeated with 5-6 more private vehicles.
The taxi drivers were worse. With about 15-20 of them parked around, they were secure in numbers and were totally disdainful to the CISF jawans. The interesting thing is that the jawans cannot impose the fine mentioned as that is not under their purview. But the lack of respect for rules, the lack of respect for the CISF jawans who have been positioned at the airports for our security, the lack of respect for authority, was frustrating.
So why do we expect our jawans to do the dirty job when we do not give them any support? These soldiers, properly trained and armed have been stationed at sensitive places like airports for our security. Why should we make their job difficult by creating traffic snarls and crowds right next to the main airport building?
Our jawans definitely do not deserve this. Authority and discipline are his armour. How can we just strip him of the same? And then expect him to defend us! So on the day when most of us were thumping our chests at the bravery of our soldiers, there were many of us who were cocking a snook at him by not following some plain rules. We can do much better. Let’s not be selfish and demanding. Our soldiers make huge sacrifices. It’s time we too start making little sacrifices. Like parking in the parking area (for which no extra money had to be paid), walking upto the arrival area and standing and waiting for a few minutes.
Many of you may share this or like this. Before doing so, please promise yourself that you will make the task of our soldiers, our policemen, our civic workers much simpler by following simple rules. And you will get others to do the same. Otherwise we do not deserve our armed forces and para military forces and the police force and may I add, even our civic forces.
So I approached the CISF soldier who appeared to be the boss. When I enquired about the illegal parking he threw up his hands in despair. His complaint was that no one listens. And his soldiers who were armed with guns at a state of readiness, have got fed up asking the people to move the vehicles into the parking lot.
As if to demonstrate his point he went over to a car with two smartly dressed, middle aged gentlemen occupying the front seats. He politely asked them to move on but first they ignored him. When he became a bit firm, they simply rolled down the window and acted as if they did not know what is wrong in parking there. At this stage the CISF person told him clearly that this is no parking area, there is no flight that has landed, so they better move on to the parking lot. The response was typical. Why doesn’t he ask the others to move and what’s wrong in waiting at that spot. I was appalled at this behaviour of our aam admi and spoke to him firmly stating that this behaviour does not befit an educated person like him. Very grudgingly the gentlemen then made an attempt to move. Almost a similar story was repeated with 5-6 more private vehicles.
The taxi drivers were worse. With about 15-20 of them parked around, they were secure in numbers and were totally disdainful to the CISF jawans. The interesting thing is that the jawans cannot impose the fine mentioned as that is not under their purview. But the lack of respect for rules, the lack of respect for the CISF jawans who have been positioned at the airports for our security, the lack of respect for authority, was frustrating.
So why do we expect our jawans to do the dirty job when we do not give them any support? These soldiers, properly trained and armed have been stationed at sensitive places like airports for our security. Why should we make their job difficult by creating traffic snarls and crowds right next to the main airport building?
Our jawans definitely do not deserve this. Authority and discipline are his armour. How can we just strip him of the same? And then expect him to defend us! So on the day when most of us were thumping our chests at the bravery of our soldiers, there were many of us who were cocking a snook at him by not following some plain rules. We can do much better. Let’s not be selfish and demanding. Our soldiers make huge sacrifices. It’s time we too start making little sacrifices. Like parking in the parking area (for which no extra money had to be paid), walking upto the arrival area and standing and waiting for a few minutes.
Many of you may share this or like this. Before doing so, please promise yourself that you will make the task of our soldiers, our policemen, our civic workers much simpler by following simple rules. And you will get others to do the same. Otherwise we do not deserve our armed forces and para military forces and the police force and may I add, even our civic forces.
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