Critically examine why VIP culture persists in Indian governance despite periodic official directives against it.

VIP culture — the expectation of deference and privilege attached to public office — has drawn repeated official attacks, from the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet's 1976 order barring Ministers from accepting garlands on tour [1] to the Union Cabinet's 2017 abolition of red beacons [2]. Its survival is structural, not accidental.

Design flaws in the directives themselves

• Objects banned, not behaviour: the 1976 order named only garlands; within the week Ministers received bouquets, new clothes, a procession with crackers, and apples, forcing Chief Minister J. Vengal Rao to promise a further ban at Nandigama [1]. A list rule always has an outside to move to.
• No legal teeth: a Cabinet tour instruction carries no penalty. The only sanction recorded was embarrassment — AP Congress general secretary K.P.V. Raghava Rao himself conceded the apples violated the order's spirit [1].
• Personality-dependence: orders resting on one leader's drive lapse when the leader moves on.

Deeper causes in the political economy

• Demand-side deference: local elites gain visibility by publicly honouring the powerful, so the ritual is re-created even when the item is banned.
• Patronage disguised as courtesy: the 1976 apples came from road transport and trade representatives to the Ministers for Transport and for Roads and Buildings [1] — the regulated honouring their regulators. Austerity asks "was it costly?"; probity asks "who gave it?" A cheap gift can still be a conflict of interest.
• Hierarchy needs symbols: the Supreme Court held in December 2013 that the red light had become a symbol of power separating citizens [2].

Where directives have bitten The 2017 decision amended the Motor Vehicle Rules rather than issuing a circular, covered even the President, Vice-President and Prime Minister, and exempted only emergency services — leaving no precedent for lesser claims [2].

Symbolic orders are thus necessary but insufficient. Drafted as broad standards covering all gifts and honours, embedded in service conduct rules with mandatory disclosure of the giver, and backed by statutory or judicial force, they can convert announcement into accountability — making Article 14's promise of equality visible in everyday governance.