How feckless Indians can be about following basic rules is best exemplified in the DGCA grounding the luxury business jet of the nation’s richest person. Even in a matter like aviation, where people take every possible precaution to ensure safety and security, it is odd to find such a cavalier attitude, especially after the US downgraded Indian aviation over security issues.
Commercial pilots too are known to flout rules like not carrying licences, while airlines themselves are not above shortcuts in safety and maintenance matters. One would think the rich would be extra careful on their safety; to find them short on fire safety regulations and emergency gear seems excessively careless!
In India, flouting regulations is almost a national habit. It’s a moot point if such a lackadaisical attitude is derived from a sense of fatalism and a belief in karma, or it comes from the philosophy that any law can be ignored in a country known for administrative laxity in enforcing rules. The knowledge that breach of regulations can be “regularised” later or a fine paid if caught in breach of the law seems to arm Indians with a devil-maycare attitude to many actions in the public sphere. Flouting of laws is seen as “no big deal”, and the richer Indians are the less they seem to care. The attitude trickles right down to the bus, taxi and auto driver, with public safety more often left to chance or the gods. Only self-regulation and public discipline can change this.
