On the loose: Toll tale

According to existing rules, personnel of armed forces are exempt from toll while on duty (File)

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has asked toll plaza staff across the country to salute and give a standing ovation to armed forces personnel when they cross by. NHAI issued the circular after complaints from defence personnel that toll staff were often rude and demanded further proof even after checking their IDs. According to existing rules, personnel of armed forces are exempt from toll while on duty. “Considering the extreme sacrifice of the armed forces to the nation, benefit of doubt should be given,” the circular added.

There is no doubt that the 20-something executive commuting between states to his temperature-controlled, air-purified office, is not thinking about his contemporary posted in Siachen who’s battling extreme discomfort in snow and sleet. Every soldier is a small but crucial link in this weary world’s unsolvable problems, of relentless insurgency and terrorism. The NHAI is completely correct to say that ordinary citizens should appreciate those fighting for the most ephemeral of notions, of keeping the peace.

And when this very tiny entitlement, a free pass on a highway, is being questioned by a random person sitting in relative comfort in a toll booth, it’s the last straw. Except, consider, the person referred to by the NHAI circular as “untrained lowest staff”, who is handing out tickets, say on the Noida DND, to one lakh travellers a day. Daily life may not be a matter of life and death for him but a 12-hour shift earning a little more than minimum wage has its share of frustrations.

Not to mention the occasional goon, known to beat up and even point a gun at toll booth operators (it’s happened). So it’s asking a bit much to expect these youth who are making just enough to keep body and soul together, to drum up the enthusiasm to clap madly for the armed forces when they pass by.

When there’s just a small percentage of people in uniform defending our country while the rest of the population is mostly cursing the state of affairs, there’s bound to be a disconnect between civilian and military society. The solution isn’t to force citizens to submit to their alleged greatness with salutes. It’s to make people understand what the experience of military service is really like.

India’s Western border cuts through the Rann of Kutch, wildly inhospitable terrain, where the Army is stationed. When the NDTV show Jai Jawan would fly down entertainers from the Indian film industry to interact with officers stationed there, it gave viewers a sense of lives so differently lived, in sand dunes and isolation. This newspaper has been carrying a column called Salute the Soldier, a remembrance for those who lost their lives in the line of duty. As any reader would know the common thread between these martyrs is that the oldest among them is under 30. The brief passages give you a sense of their terrifying reality, that some jobs come with unconditional patriotic values.

Judging by the tweets praising the NHAI move for utmost respect towards India’s military, it’s clear that at an individual level, the armed forces are held in high esteem. Their interventions in times of crises like in Mumbai during 26/11 or during floods in remote parts of the country are etched in peoples’ memories.

Yet, changing ideas of justice and human rights in a more evolved public provoked outrage when a video clip went viral and showed a man tied to a bonnet of an army jeep in Kashmir. It makes no sense to romanticise any career completely, certainly not to the point of a standing ovation, because as many noble and ignoble spirits are to be found among them, as in any other pursuit. The argument can never be medicine is better than law, or that business is less virtuous than the Press. And battles, certainly aren’t those only fought at the fronts. In fact, all of us serving civilisation in whatever small capacity, deserve a standing ovation.