Parliament was attacked because of the red light, when Arun Jaitley was cornered, he/she himself brought the law, now Pooja Khedkar is trapped

New Delhi: 23 years ago, on 13 December 2001, around 11:30 am, a white Ambassador car with a red beacon entered the Parliament premises through Gate No. 12. Since the car had a red beacon and a fake Home Ministry sticker on it, it managed to enter the Parliament premises. Five terrorists of Pakistan’s terrorist organizations Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were sitting in this car with deadly AK-47 rifles, pistols and hand grenades. Before the security personnel could understand anything, this car went ahead and collided with the Vice President’s car parked in the premises. The terrorists started firing. The country has seen how dangerous the misuse of red beacon can be in the form of the Parliament attack. The heat of this red beacon has reached the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and now the probationer IAS officer Pooja Khedkar through the Parliament attack.

23 years ago, 9 soldiers were martyred in a red light incident

At that time, more than 100 VIPs including PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani, several ministers, MPs and journalists were present inside the Parliament House. The then Congress President Sonia Gandhi had returned home before the attack. However, as soon as she got information about the attack on Parliament, her first phone call was to Vajpayee to enquire about his/her well-being. The CRPF then killed all the five terrorists. In this attack, 9 soldiers including Delhi Police and Parliament House guards were martyred. Later, Afzal Guru, the culprit of this Parliament attack, was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013.

The terrorists had put a fake Home Ministry sticker on the car

In fact, even at that time, the security guards checking at the gate hesitated to stop or check the terrorists’ car because it had a red light and a fake sticker of the Home Ministry on it. Till a few years ago, the red light was so powerful that people would move away from the road on seeing a car with a red light. These terrorists had the stolen letterhead of the Home Minister and on it were fake signatures of his/her assistant private secretary regarding the use of the red light. A fake sticker of the Home Ministry was also pasted on the car.

When Arun Jaitley was also embroiled in the red light issue

This is from November 2014, when assembly elections were to be held in Jharkhand. The code of conduct was in place. At that time Arun Jaitley was the finance minister in the newly formed Narendra Modi government. In fact, Jaitley, who had gone to Ranchi on November 11 to release the BJP’s election manifesto, reached the hotel from the airport using a red light. When the controversy grew, the government car driver was suspended in this case. The opposition parties had then alleged that the Ranchi district administration protected the Union Minister. The opposition says that the Union Minister himself is well versed with the law and he/she knew everything, yet he/she kept roaming around in a car with a red light.

Jaitley brought the historic law for red light

Three years later, in 2017, the same Jaitley brought a law to remove red lights from vehicles, which demolished the system that had been in place since the British Raj. From May 1, red lights were completely banned on the vehicles of ministers and officers, including the PM. Jaitley had said that now blue lights can be installed only on emergency services vehicles like ambulances and fire brigades. At that time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said about this law that every Indian is special and every Indian is a VIP.

After giving the verdict, the judge removed the red light from his/her car

In December 2013, the Supreme Court gave a historic decision regarding the red light. The court had said that rules should be made to stop the misuse of red light and siren. Justice GS Singhvi, the judge hearing the case, had the red light removed from his/her car. Then the Supreme Court had said that the red light given to VIPs by the government is being misused. This is a danger to the society. It is necessary to stop it. The red light has become a status symbol. Abhay Singh, a resident of UP, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to ban the red light.

Exemption only for emergency vehicles and during disaster
From May 1, 2017, red, blue or white lights are allowed only on emergency service vehicles like ambulance, fire brigade, police, defence forces, paramilitary forces. These multicoloured lights can be used in disaster management vehicles during man-made disasters like flood, earthquake, landslide, cyclone, tsunami and use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Earlier, under rule 108 (i) and 108 (iii) of Motor Vehicles Act, 1989, the central and state governments had the right to install red lights on VIP vehicles, which was repealed. After this, a rule was made that red lights cannot be installed on any vehicle. Under rule 108 (2), state governments had the right to give permission to install blue lights on VIP vehicles, but this was also changed.
Tightening grip on IAS Pooja Khedkar, Pune Police seized her luxury Audi car by installing jammers and barricades
Then Union Minister Gadkari first removed the red light
When the new rule was made in 2017, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was the first minister of the Modi cabinet to give up the red light. Later, apart from Gadkari, many other Union Ministers stopped using the red light on their vehicles.

Kejriwal was the first leader to remove the red light, Yogi also removed it
The decision to ban red lights was first taken by the Aam Aadmi Party when Arvind Kejriwal’s government was formed in Delhi in December 2013. Kejriwal first removed the red light from his/her own vehicle. Later, when he/she came back to power in February 2015, this rule continued. Shortly after this, the Congress government of Punjab and the Yogi Adityanath government of UP also banned the use of red lights.
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Pooja Khedkar had installed a red light on her Audi car
Pune’s IAS officer Pooja Khedkar liked the red light so much that despite being a trainee officer, she installed a red light on her private Audi car. Apart from installing a red light on the car, Pooja also got ‘Maharashtra Government’ written on it. She also demanded that a letterhead, nameplate and other facilities be provided in her name. However, these facilities are not available while being on probation.

Bureaucrats cannot use even red or blue lightsAccording to the rules, no bureaucrat of the country can use red or blue lights on his/her official vehicle. However, in case of emergency, there is a relaxation to install lights on some vehicles of fire brigade, police and administration. These include PRV (Police Response Vehicles) present in police stations, Gypsy and Tata Sumo etc. Taking advantage of this emergency rule, many officers install red lights. However, its use is not allowed on private cars at all.