The best thing about a bus is that it is not a train.
Unlike trains, buses, well, the vast majority of them don't have compartments.
In that sense, a bus is a democratic means of transport. Every passenger is treated as equal. If the ride is sweaty and stinky, it is experienced by all; likewise if it is air-conditioned, with cosy seatings.
Though the common aim of buses is to move people around, the method and intentions can vary depending on who arranged the rides.
The ongoing mass protests in Delhi, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that allegedly scrapped millions of eligible voters from the electoral rolls have witnessed the use of buses for varying reasons.
The Delhi Police and the numerous other security units used buses to transport detained protesters. The Delhi Transport Corporation's (DTC) green and orange transit carriages were among those used for the purpose.
Some buses were likened to prisons, having cells divided by metal railings. Neha Bora, the firebrand student leader of AISA (All India Students' Association), affiliated to the CPI (ML) Liberation, said there was "no place to breathe" in some of those cramped-up buses.
Are detention buses the new jails? https://t.co/XFxcGxUVGg
Hundreds of protesters were detained from various points in the national capital, almost every day, starting October 2, when the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) mobilised the people's agitation.
Television and social media coverage of the event has shown police and security personnel using excessive force to push protesters into detention buses. Those who resisted, including Supreme Court lawyers and journalists, were carried by their limbs or dragged into the buses.
As the moving detention centres drove people to unspecified locations before releasing them, a different type of bus honked its way into the capital.
It had AC, pushback seats and panoramic windows that must have given the passengers a good view of the historic city and its occupants. It was used by the Congress-led opposition bloc, INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), to ferry its leaders to the protest sites.
On October 12, a group of campaign leaders, from Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to Neha Bora, rode the big tourist bus, with the aim of reaching the Supreme Court premises.
For Bora, the second occasion was a recognition of her struggles. Her perseverance that shone through in the NEET paper leak protests in June-July and the ongoing one over SIR had earned her a seat next to seasoned politicians.
The protesters had to alight midway and continue on foot because the roads were congested with crowds and barricades.
Almost all 25 parties that make up the alliance had boarded the bus, with the exception of the DMK and AAP, though there has been no further developments to indicate that those parties have hitched another ride.
If the idea of the INDIA bus ride was to create a political spectacle, one might argue that it worked. Even though the leaders are separated by ideology, they were headed in the same direction. It offered a visual demonstration of a larger parliamentary opposition.
The method of using buses to carry leaders of the alliance was tried and tested a few months ago. In July, during the nationwide agitation over the NEET fiasco, the INDIA bloc drove a convoy of buses to the Gandhi Smriti in Delhi in solidarity with the protesting students, who had gathered and stayed put, at the behest of the CJP, an epoch-making movement launched by political activist Abhijeet Dipke.
The continuation of the bus tactic might imply that a trend has been set and that the opposition could use it again. Interestingly, Delhi has a history of DTC buses being used for political means. The Shah Commission Report on the abuses and excesses during the Emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between 1975 and 1977 mentions the use of huge numbers of transport buses for rallies, reportedly inconveniencing the public.
That said, this democratic country has also seen the repeated use of buses by political parties in a different context over the years - to smuggle their MLAs susceptible to poaching from wealthier political rivals after a mandate that wasn't overwhelmingly favourable or ahead of crucial floor tests. It has happened in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand among other states.
The MLAs were lured away to luxury resorts to enjoy its pleasures until the formation of the government or till the problem had been resolved. The phenomenon that has been in practice in the country since the 1980s is often called Resort Politics. Buses were among the chosen modes of transport in such situations.
Buses can be a mobile detention centre, a means to scurry away legislators vulnerable to defection, for political rallies, or simply to demonstrate power. But the fascinating thing about democracy is that the passenger is more important than the driver.