Why Rajasthan crackdown on 'VIP culture' misses a bigger road-safety crisis
A momo-cart owner's ordeal and a mother-son's fatality in a road collision expose official insensitivity towards citizens and gaps in traffic enforcement
On paper, it looks like a determined assault on a culture of VIP entitlement that has long plagued Indian roads. Yet, two accidents in Jaipur have exposed a troubling contradiction at the heart of the campaign.
On June 19, police personnel clearing the route for chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma’s convoy allegedly overturned a momo cart on Mahal Road in Jagatpura. According to vendors, the cart’s owners—sisters Reshu Gupta and Khushboo Gupta—had repeatedly pleaded with the police to wait for a few minutes because the steamer contained boiling water. The request was allegedly ignored and the cart pushed aside—hot water apparently spilled over, causing burn injuries to Reshu on the chest, arm and thigh.
The story is heartbreaking beyond the immediate injury. The sisters had lost their father during the Covid pandemic in Uttar Pradesh. Forced by circumstances, the family shifted to Jaipur. One sister studied physiotherapy. The other completed her BSc degree. But to support their widowed mother and earn a livelihood, they had to begin with a modest momo cart.
The Mahal Road episode saw the Opposition Congress raise an uncomfortable question. Can a government genuinely claim to be fighting VIP culture while citizens continue to suffer because roads must be cleared for VIP movement?
A week later, the BJP government acted, assuring to bear the expenses for Reshu’s treatment and providing a dairy booth permit to the family as a livelihood means, besides transferring policemen allegedly responsible for the mishap to the Police Lines.
To be fair, Sharma had tried to project a different approach after assuming office in December 2023. On several occasions, he was seen stopping at traffic signals and attempting to reduce public inconvenience. But security protocols hardened after a speeding taxi, in December 2024, rammed into the chief minister’s convoy in an accident that resulted in fatalities. Since then, security agencies have appeared unwilling to take chances.
The result is visible across Jaipur—road closures, diversions and lengthy traffic halts to enable VIP movement. This is not merely for the chief minister and governor but also for ministers, dignitaries from Delhi and political leaders from other states. For thousands of commuters, this has come to mean being forced to wait on the roads while a VIP passes through.
That is why the momo cart accident carries huge symbolic significance. It demonstrates that the essence of VIP culture is not a hooter or fancy number plate. Rather, it is the assumption that citizens, their livelihoods and their time can be disrupted for the convenience of a clutch of powerful personalities.
Another question that the incident raises is whether the campaign addresses Rajasthan’s road safety crisis. Every day, newspapers carry reports of horrific accidents from around the state. During the campaign period itself, multiple fatal crashes grabbed headlines, including one that killed four brothers. Newspapers recently carried disturbing reports with pictures of a mother and son killed in a collision, highlighting the brutality of road accidents that continue to claim lives daily. It remains to be seen if the coverage will shake the administration into action.
Road safety experts argue that fatalities are caused primarily by speeding, dangerous overtaking, driving on the wrong side, drunken driving, poor lane discipline, use of mobile phones while driving and weak implementation of traffic engineering standards.
But many common yet dangerous practices rarely attract sustained enforcement. For instance, drivers routinely stop at traffic signals in the wrong lane, occupying multiple lanes while preparing to make turns. The result is chaos and sudden conflict points. Pedestrians frequently cross roads at busy intersections, often ignoring pedestrian lights and zebra crossings. Action against such behaviour is rare.
Coming back to the ‘VIP culture’, the numbers from the police campaign reveal an imbalance. Of the 142,000 vehicles fined, over 53,000 were targeted for dark films, over 36,000 for number plates, nearly 20,000 for names and signs displayed on vehicles and more than 10,000 for flashers and hooters.
These are visible violations—easy to identify, photograph and publicise. But visibility should not be confused with impact. The real test of a traffic campaign is not how many challans are issued but whether roads become safer, accidents decline and citizens feel protected.
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On paper, it looks like a determined assault on a culture of VIP entitlement that has long plagued Indian roads. Yet, two accidents in Jaipur have exposed a troubling contradiction at the heart of the campaign.
On June 19, police personnel clearing the route for chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma’s convoy allegedly overturned a momo cart on Mahal Road in Jagatpura. According to vendors, the cart’s owners—sisters Reshu Gupta and Khushboo Gupta—had repeatedly pleaded with the police to wait for a few minutes because the steamer contained boiling water. The request was allegedly ignored and the cart pushed aside—hot water apparently spilled over, causing burn injuries to Reshu on the chest, arm and thigh.
The story is heartbreaking beyond the immediate injury. The sisters had lost their father during the Covid pandemic in Uttar Pradesh. Forced by circumstances, the family shifted to Jaipur. One sister studied physiotherapy. The other completed her BSc degree. But to support their widowed mother and earn a livelihood, they had to begin with a modest momo cart.
The Mahal Road episode saw the Opposition Congress raise an uncomfortable question. Can a government genuinely claim to be fighting VIP culture while citizens continue to suffer because roads must be cleared for VIP movement?
A week later, the BJP government acted, assuring to bear the expenses for Reshu’s treatment and providing a dairy booth permit to the family as a livelihood means, besides transferring policemen allegedly responsible for the mishap to the Police Lines.
To be fair, Sharma had tried to project a different approach after assuming office in December 2023. On several occasions, he was seen stopping at traffic signals and attempting to reduce public inconvenience. But security protocols hardened after a speeding taxi, in December 2024, rammed into the chief minister’s convoy in an accident that resulted in fatalities. Since then, security agencies have appeared unwilling to take chances.
The result is visible across Jaipur—road closures, diversions and lengthy traffic halts to enable VIP movement. This is not merely for the chief minister and governor but also for ministers, dignitaries from Delhi and political leaders from other states. For thousands of commuters, this has come to mean being forced to wait on the roads while a VIP passes through.
That is why the momo cart accident carries huge symbolic significance. It demonstrates that the essence of VIP culture is not a hooter or fancy number plate. Rather, it is the assumption that citizens, their livelihoods and their time can be disrupted for the convenience of a clutch of powerful personalities.
Another question that the incident raises is whether the campaign addresses Rajasthan’s road safety crisis. Every day, newspapers carry reports of horrific accidents from around the state. During the campaign period itself, multiple fatal crashes grabbed headlines, including one that killed four brothers. Newspapers recently carried disturbing reports with pictures of a mother and son killed in a collision, highlighting the brutality of road accidents that continue to claim lives daily. It remains to be seen if the coverage will shake the administration into action.
Road safety experts argue that fatalities are caused primarily by speeding, dangerous overtaking, driving on the wrong side, drunken driving, poor lane discipline, use of mobile phones while driving and weak implementation of traffic engineering standards.
But many common yet dangerous practices rarely attract sustained enforcement. For instance, drivers routinely stop at traffic signals in the wrong lane, occupying multiple lanes while preparing to make turns. The result is chaos and sudden conflict points. Pedestrians frequently cross roads at busy intersections, often ignoring pedestrian lights and zebra crossings. Action against such behaviour is rare.
Coming back to the ‘VIP culture’, the numbers from the police campaign reveal an imbalance. Of the 142,000 vehicles fined, over 53,000 were targeted for dark films, over 36,000 for number plates, nearly 20,000 for names and signs displayed on vehicles and more than 10,000 for flashers and hooters.
These are visible violations—easy to identify, photograph and publicise. But visibility should not be confused with impact. The real test of a traffic campaign is not how many challans are issued but whether roads become safer, accidents decline and citizens feel protected.
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