How do you know you’re a neta? When everybody treats you like a Fabergé egg that must not be left out in the sun too long, that’s how. India’s political culture comes fitted with an iron frame of protocol that must be followed at all times, especially by service officers. In Maharashtra, a new circular has gone out, instructing babus on how they should behave with their Betters.

If a neta passes, stand up to greet them. If a neta wants a recommendation for promotions, you better give that recommendation. In writing. If a neta goes to a function, you display their name on the invitation. If a neta visits, you drop frivolous pursuits, like carrying out your work, and meet them first.

When you don’t observe these niceties, it can be disconcerting for netas. For how else can they tell themselves from the hoi polloi? No wonder breaches are taken seriously.

Here are five examples of mind-your-protocol that coltish babus need to learn from.

1. Last month, when IPS officer Rishiraj Singh failed to get up and salute Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, tempers ran high. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy took note on July 13 of the “disrespect” shown to his minister and promised “suitable action” against the officer. Singh might protest that he did not see the minister, who had entered from a back entrance, but the political establishment is having none of it.

2. Singh was clearly not paying attention. Only this May, Bastar district collector Amit Kataria made so bold as to receive the prime minister wearing smart casuals and sunglasses. An Orwellian government notice went out immediately. “We have noticed that you failed to wear the ceremonial dress [rasami poshakh in Hindi] and wore sunglasses when you received the Prime Minister, which was not in keeping with Rule 3(1) of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules 1968.” Rasami poshakh involves a bandh gala or a safari suit. You might be stewing in the 40 degree heat and Modi himself might have worn glares for a meeting the next day, but are you prime minister of India? No. Stew away, then.

3. Maharashtra Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal also suffers from a respect deficit. In 2010, he made visiting US President Barack Obama’s cavalcade wait for over 11 minutes as he refused to give route clearance. Escorting Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lahore in 1999, he stalled the prime minister’s cavalcade for hours as there had been no route clearance by the local police. He was vindicated. The team sent to carry out the clearance was ambushed.

4. While minding your protocol, it is especially crucial to mind your precedence. And by precedence, we mean MPs and ex-MPs first, come what may. There was hell to pay in Chandrapur last year. During the Republic Day flag hoisting ceremony at the Police Grounds, administrative and police officers got the plum front row seats while politicians and MLAs were pushed to the back or to less prominent places. Congress and Nationalist Congress Party politicians staged a “boycott”, “hurt” at the fact that a former Union minister had been refused a front row seat.

5. The travelling MP is a fragile creature who must be handled with care. Airport personnel in various parts of the country have discovered this only too late, after they tried to conduct security checks and irate MPs brandished protocol at them. But most are not, in fact, exempt from the regular procedures. Recently, the union home ministry reportedly asked the Central Industrial Security Force, which mans the airports, to publish the names of MPs who had tried to bully security staff. So far, this has had limited success. Earlier this month, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju reportedly delayed an Air India flight and had a family offloaded so he could get a seat. Rijiju has apologised.

But we’re waiting for the next time someone tries to security check an Indian neta.