No 'self' service

Lessons from the fiasco over Team Anna member Kiran Bedi skimming ticket upgrades ostensibly to benefit her NGO do not seem to have rubbed off on other social activists. Recently former Team Anna member Swami Agnivesh was scheduled to fly from Delhi to London on the national carrier Air India. Since he held an economy-class ticket, he called a senior bureaucrat in the civil aviation ministry asking for an upgrade. When the bureaucrat concerned asked why he should be given one, Agnivesh’s answer was to impress his identity on him. To which the bureaucrat’s nonchalant reply surely had him stumped. “So what?” he said.