VIPs, blocked roads and a twisted realty

Like many times before, it happened last Thursday once more. As this writer attempted to cross the road near the newly renovated Intercontinental hotel, he was barred from crossing. A couple of policemen also locked the exit gates of the Ramna Park since a VIP was travelling along that route with his entourage.

That's not all, commuters were either forced to remain at a standstill or take the opposite road. None of the walkers inside the park were allowed to get out. They were not even allowed to walk freely inside the park, though gates were locked. The park's walkway, stretching from just opposite the Department of Fisheries up until the exit gate near intercontinental was blocked by law enforcement members. The roads leading up to Kakrail and Shahbag were shutdown for an indefinite period - resulting in a bottleneck and avoidable jams in nearby roads. 

And this sufferer not only missed an important appointment but was forced to remain motionless for nearly an hour with others. Exhausted and irritated, he failed to understand what's the actual reason for blocking the arteries of the capital city every time a VIP travels? And for how long will this manmade indiscipline last?

These are the sad circumstances when our national and also international VIPs hit the roads in what is called South and North Dhaka today. What's unimaginably painful is that on one hand we have the intensifying regular traffic jams coupled with poor trafficking problems, while on the other the unexpected avoidable delays caused by the numerable VIPs travelling on city roads.
It's time the police seriously rethinks and bring about convenient changes in its security and protocol planning to clear roads for the VIPs. It's unreasonable to shutdown roads every now and then. The hassle turns into a nightmare if you are   heading towards Motijheel by taking the Secretariat Road. Usually it's closed for a couple of hours every day, since it's the main road for bureaucrats to enter and leave office. Other than that there is no point to close the road for rickshaws. It's a sheer display of prejudice and the road facing the secretariat should never be restricted for favouring our civil servants.

The point, however, our roads are not exclusive properties of VIPs. They can surely travel with entourages and security men, but they should also be made to endure traffic jams because they must experience at least a bit of Dhaka's worsening traffic scene first hand. Roads in Dhaka are not smooth and empty what they see during their commuting in free roads.
One may surely argue by saying our VIPs time is valuable. The truth - every one's time is valuable. A man or a woman working at a private organisation must make it on time; otherwise the late comer's job may be at stake. But if a government minister or a secretary is delayed at some official duty, there is none to sack him. None is there to ask him to explain or penalise him.

I have travelled more than a couple of dozen countries in the last decade, and saw how VIPs travel with their protocol and security men there -- including president and prime ministers. Despite having long entourages they don't make city-dwellers suffer. The system and the entire planning to clear roads, make them safer for quick commuting is completely different in those countries.

Commuters, pedestrians to ordinary citizens are all travelling in the same road -- may be by maintaining a safe distance from the VIPs -- that's all. Their police provide security too but not at the cost of unnecessarily closing down roads. They don't profusely stop every pedestrian and change their course without a reason. Speaking from experience, clearing roads for VIPs in Dhaka begin at least half an hour prior their arrival and their entire travel route -- which may well be 5-20 kilometres is kept closed. Since there aren't enough bypass or substitute routs so the pressure is felt all around.   

Also standing of police constables every fifty metres or so depicts the character of an authoritarian state. The point is - the VIPs are kept at bay from the true face of the city and its dwellers. If the extra ordinary security measures and the emptiness around are meant to guarantee security -- it's failing.

From my limited understanding I can say, security for VIPs is usually beefed up based on threat perception and previous track record of assassinations and terrorist activities. Given the abnormal protection provided to our VIPs, they are not likely to die in the streets. The couple of heads-of-state of Bangladesh were assassinated where they resided -- not in our roads. Foreigners were attacked and murdered inside a restaurant in 2016 -- not in our roads. And our communication infrastructure, rail, bridges, highways in general is yet to experience big-scale terror attacks (God forbid).

The writer is Assistant Editor,
The Daily Observer