'No Car Day' to play spoilsport: President should've chosen another day for tea party with ex-servicemen

By Bikram Vohra

President Pranab Mukherjee has invited a slew of senior officers and gallantry award winners from the services to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the 1965 war. The invitation is for tea at 11 am at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.

When the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces invites you, it is more like a summons and cannot be ignored. But there is a problem this year. New Delhi is the latest metropolis to join the No Car Day global initiative. Delhi will observe the first-ever No Car Day tomorrow. Cars will be off the road. No one thought of that and many officers are reasonably concerned about how they will get to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

For those living in Gurgaon with all the roadblocks and reworked map with earmarked corridors for traffic, it is a daunting effort for a cup of tea. One three star General, who is also a medal winner, said, “The war was easy but trying to navigate my way from Gurgaon to Rashtrapathi Bhavan seems more hazardous on this day and I am a little worried that my car will not be targeted by trigger happy youngsters patrolling the streets and blocking motorists.”

It makes sense and it is a bit of a surprise that no one thought of changing the date to 21 September in view of the car blockade and the historical fact that India accepted the UN-sponsored ceasefire today (21 September) and it was only Pakistan that took till the night of 22 September to agree.

Clearly, the President was not informed of the background to his invitation. The concern of these former flag officers is that they have no escorts, no flags and star plates on the car and they are not in uniform. Imagine trying to reach the presidential residence in a 1.2-litre engine vehicle. Let’s just hope everyone who wants to go to Rashtrapati Bhavan makes it, as several others have already decided to boycott the tea in order to show solidarity with the OROP agitators.