Monday, December 6, 2010

Vulgar show of wealth

The BJP president Nitin Gadkari has spared no expense to make his son's wedding reception a memorable event. Chartered plane loads of his party colleagues, businessmen and Bollywood glitterati descended on Nagpur to attend the reception along with about two lac locals. Perhaps he spent 25 to 30 crore rupees of his 'hard earned' money on hospitality of a scale the maharajas of the yore were known for.

In our great country one can not ask the politicians the source of their income and wealth and if one makes bold and does, they are not supposed to answer such silly questions. The same applies to Nitin Gadkari, son of a school teacher this first generation industrialist seems to have done excellently for himself. Now, of course, he does not have time to look after his business interests and it is his son who does it for him. Let us presume that he has really earned his money by fair and legitimate means but does that give him a licence to make an ugly exhibition of his opulence, particularly when he is the president of a political party which claims that it follows Mahatma Gandhi's and Deendayal Upadhyay's brand of simplicity?

Gadkari may have spent his own money but the manner in which he has done it, he has made outrageously ostentatious expenditure fashionable and politically acceptable. In our culture of 'keeping up with the Joneses' he has given the lead to other politicians to put up such extravaganzas. Since all of them may not be prosperous industrialists like him, so per force they will have to scam their way through to be able to throw parties of such gigantic proportions.

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