The Fine Print of the Ambani Wedding

In my 74 years I have not seen, or even heard of, a more tasteless, egotistical and pretentious wedding than the recent 24X7 televised extravaganza of the Ambanis. It is not just about its cost, which is estimated to be anything between Rupees 1,500 crores to 5,000 crores, not including the cost to the government in facilitating a private function as if it was a state event. The ugliness, the perversity and its real portent lie elsewhere.

It lies in the in-your-face manner in which this money was expended, at a time when the average Indian has never been worse off economically, when inequality and unemployment have reached record heights, when 67% of the GST is paid by 50% of its poorest citizens, when the top 1% control 40% of the country’s wealth, when 800 million people have to be provided free or subsidised ration to survive. At a time like this, it needs an especially insensitive and supremely contemptuous mindset to distribute invitation cards which cost lakhs of rupees each, to charter 100 private jets to bring in guests from all over the globe, to take 500 guests on a pre-wedding cruise, to flaunt clothes and necklaces that are worth more than the GDP of many countries, to pay Rs 80 crores to pop singers and to dish out gifts that reportedly cost more than Rs 1 crore each. Marie Antoinette at least offered cake to the citizens when there was no bread, her Indian avatars offer only a soap-box serial, spread over eight months, with every event, that should be a private affair, playing out in full public glare. It is this which offends the sensibilities, not just the scale of expenditure.

Incidentally, I find something troubling in the obsession with foreign figures among our super-rich—this compulsion to flaunt white-skinned invitees, whether they are pop stars, former prime ministers, or corporate leaders. It seems as if our billionaires have not fully “arrived” until they can rub shoulders with these ‘imported’ personalities, even if it means paying them to attend. Why, for example, seek out a Rihanna or a Justin Bieber when our country has such a rich galaxy of artists and unparalleled cultural variety of its own?

Let us be clear about one thing, this wasn’t just a wedding, it was a powerful political statement. It appears to me that Mukesh Ambani was making two statements here through the glitz, hype and greenbacks. One, that no one should be in any doubt about his political clout and preeminence. Incidentally, this also vindicates what Rahul Gandhi has been saying all along about who the real powers behind the throne are. And Mr. Ambani’s confidence is certainly justified. Barring the South and the Left, every politician of any note, including those from the INDIA block and even the Congress itself, were in obsequious attendance, as were the Shankarcharyas who had boycotted the Ram temple inauguration, an indication that the Ambani empire holds sway over both the temporal and the spiritual. The prime minister was there too, making contrite amends for accusing his host of sending tempo loads of black money to the Congress during Lok Sabha elections.

 The second statement by Asia’s richest man is that he doesn’t give a tinker’s curse for public opinion or his fellow Indians, the other 99%, who have funded his riches, consumed his products and have made him what he is. He had demonstrated as much earlier, when he built his 27-storey mansion. at a cost of Rs 3000 crores, overlooking the slums of these very Indians. And why should he bother, anyway? He controls most of the media, with anchors and editors obligingly read from the script prepared by him.

But beneath this sickening display of naked power and wealth, one can detect an aspiration of the nouveau riche, the real colonial mindset of the Indian uber rich: a desperate, almost paranoiac desire to be “accepted” by the glitterati and power brokers of the West, to be one of them. This is a trait that Ambani shares with his political mentor. The mentor does it through bear hugs and dropping of first names while our aspiring Midas does it by basking in the company of these invitees – what veteran journalist P. Sainath calls ‘Nero’s guests’ –  even if it means your star performer dancing with his jockeys showing and a Kim Kardashian doing the gaja gamini walk next to Mamata Bannerjee plodding along in chappals. This colonial mindset is the bane of a progressing India, which Modi should be working to eradicate, rather than renaming Rajpath or revising the Indian Penal Code or redesigning the army’s uniforms. But a doctor can hardly be expected to cure a patient if he has the same disease himself, can he?

For me, the only ones who come out of this tamasha untainted are the Gandhis. Not one of them attended the wedding functions, in spite of being invited personally. Rahul Gandhi’s absence is not a sulking refusal or arrogance, it is an affirmative action which demonstrates moral uprightness and political consistency. For this was not just a wedding, it was a political statement. It was a reiteration of the power and wealth of someone who controls the levers of government and wanted it to be known, not just in India but globally.

It had to be answered in kind, which is what Gandhi has done. He has shown that despite the capitulation by his peers in the opposition camp, he, at least, has the courage and commitment to practise what he preaches: that this country is being handed over to the oligarchs, that the national wealth being cornered by the rich 10% needs to be equitably shared, that the nexus between politics and ‘Big Capital’ has to be broken for the country to progress and to remain a true democracy. To that extent he has been true to his new persona and has done us proud.

Sadly, no other leader of the opposition alliance has shown similar fortitude or moral integrity. They have all succumbed to the lure of power and wealth and performed the role of baratis – if not labhartis – in full public glare. They could have wished Ambani in private, without associating themselves publicly with this circus. Instead, their cringeworthy behaviour has exposed the fragility and lack of any genuine, value based adhesive to the INDIA bloc. It further shows the difficulty of formulating any common minimum programme for the alliance. This is a warning flag for Rahul and one hopes he has taken note of this.

For all their talk of socialist principles, concern for the common man, and tears for the vulnerable, it is all just a facade. They are perfectly comfortable with the purveyors of vulgar affluence and riches; they are self-serving opportunists whose only goal is to attain power. They will dine with the devil, if necessary, to attain this object. If they are opposing Modi, it is not because they do not approve of his values and principles (or the lack of them), it is because they would rather be sitting on his throne. They cannot be trusted to stay the race and the Congress will, sooner or later, have to find a way to reduce its dependence on them.

Many years ago, when I was a probationer on district training in Mandi, I used to go to the district club almost every evening for a drink or a game of bridge. My deputy commissioner, the late C.D. Parsheera, was the president of the club but never visited it. One day I asked him the reason for this. I still remember his words, which have guided me throughout my career: “Avay, our job demands that we say no more often than we say yes. And remember this: it’s very difficult to say ‘no’ to a person with whom you have had a drink the previous evening.”

Do you now see the fine print of this wedding?

This article was originally published on the author’s blog, View from [Greater] Kailash. It has been edited lightly for style.