By Tarunkumar Singhal, Raman Jokhakar, Chartered Accountants
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The move by President Pranab Mukherjee to dispense with the traditional honorifics ‘Excellency’ and ‘Mahamahim’ is not likely to go down well in much of India even though it is a democracy. In 2008, the Bar Council of India passed a resolution recommending that judges should no longer be called by their colonial-era titles of ‘Your Lordship’ and ‘Your Ladyship’ but by the more egalitarian and gender-neutral nomenclature, ‘Your Honour’.
Old habits have died hard, however, and the anachronistic form of address continues. In that sense, the President’s move to downsize his official protocol should alarm those further down the ladder who delight in prefixes such as ‘Hon’ble’ – always written thus rather than in expanded form. As it has been appropriated by President Mukherjee as his preferred title, insidious mango men may use this as good opportunity to divest increasingly discredited politicians of this obviously unsuitable honorific, routinely affixed to VIP names on placards, invitations and communiques.
In a country where even red beacon lights are zealously guarded as symbols of privilege by those who are paradoxically supposed to be public servants, it is unlikely that grandees will take kindly to their titles being abolished with as little ceremony as the maharajas were dispossessed of theirs, 40 years ago.
President Mukherjee’s other initiative – to hold more functions in Rashtrapati Bhavan rather than at other venues – should also delight the mango men. Besides reducing bandobast and security costs, it will save thousands of litres of petrol, not only of the presidential cavalcade but also of those caught in traffic restrictions due to ‘VIP movement’. Will India’s other excellencies be willing to dispense with some of their privileges too?
(Source: The Economic Times dated 11-10-2012)
