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Postscript

Entertainment excess entitled him to build a Xanadu-style palace at public ex-
pense. In 2016, Pragati Bhavan, a vastu-compliant home
with bullet proof windows and toilets was constructed
HERE’S SOMETHING NOT QUITE RIGHT about in Hyderabad at a cost of Rs.50 crore on a nine-acre plot
the endless rounds of cricket matches, sports, with a built-up area of 100,000 sq.ft. The budgeted cost
Tgames and entertainment being served up to the of Rs.35 crore spiralled because no expense was spared
Indian public. Currently, IPL T20 cricket matches are on fixtures, fittings and frills. A year earlier, four Toyota
attracting crowds upward of 50,000-60,000 every eve- Prado SUVs and a Mercedes-Benz Bus were purchased
ning in specially constructed stadia across the country, for inclusion in his convoy that transported him every-
with matches ending near midnight. Moreover, several where. Moreover, his son K.T. Rama Rao and daughter
multiples of the huge in-stadia crowds, including young K. Kavitha were appointed cabinet ministers. All this
children, follow T20 matches on television. Five days lavish expenditure was funded by the people of Telangana
after the IPL tournament ends on May 26, the World Cup (pop.35 million). Little wonder this megalomaniac was
T20 tournament being staged in the Caribbean and for ousted from office by the state’s electorate last year.
the first time in the US to be played out over 29 days, will Such effete epicureanism is common within Indian
begin. And shortly after, the Paris Olympic Games which politicians. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal elected
will serve up 15 days of globally televised international on an anti-corruption platform, also constructed a Rs.50
track and field competitive events, will start. crore super deluxe Sheesh Mahal to rest his weary head.
At a time when India aspires to transform into a $30 Now he is cooling his heels in a tiny cell in Tihar jail after
trillion economy by 2047 (from the current $4 trillion), every tribunal, including the Supreme Court, denied him
the population is being distracted, if not debilitated, by bail.
ceaseless rounds of entertainment on 226 million televi- Yet unlike the situation in communist and third world
sion sets installed in 217 of the country’s 280 million dictatorships, thanks to a free press and media, the
households. Add to this smartphone addiction suffused excesses of India’s venal politicians luxuriating at public
with audio-visual entertainment reels. Every day, en- expense are outed. Citizens! Speak up to protect freedom
tertainment weary managers, workers and students are of the press. It’s under threat.
staggering into offices, factories and classrooms, minds
buzzing with entertainment.
In his classic 19th century treatise Decline & Fall of History apathy
the Roman Empire, historian Edward Gibbon attributed
addiction to ‘circuses’, i.e, entertainment of the general CRASS REMARK OR PROVOCATIVE STATE-
populace, as a major cause of the fall of mighty Roman MENT can change the outcome of a general
Empire overrun by Goths, Vandals and barbarians in 476 A election. In 2014, Congress worthy Mani Shankar
century AD. “The most lively and splendid amusement of Aiyar’s too clever by half witticism that Narendra Modi,
the idle multitude depended on the frequent exhibition of the son of an OBC tea vendor at a railway station who
public games and spectacles… From the morning to the had worked his way up the social and political ladder and
evening, careless of the sun or of the rain, the spectators, served three successful terms as BJP chief minister of
who sometimes amounted to the number of 400,000, Gujarat state should be serving tea in Congress Bhavan,
remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horses Delhi, instead of aspiring to become India’s prime minis-
and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear ter, cost the Congress party millions of votes and contrib-
for the success of the colours which they espoused; and uted heavily to BJP sweeping General Election 2014.
the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of But two-term prime minister Modi doesn’t seem to
a race.” All this while a greedy ruling elite indulged itself have learned the lesson of Aiyar’s monumental faux pas.
even as barbarians were at the gates. It’s important to Delivering an election speech in Rajasthan on April 21,
learn lessons from history. Modi warned the audience that if Congress is voted to
power, it will confiscate the wealth of the Hindu majority
Protect media freedom and distribute it to “people who have many children” and
to Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries. Such
crass demonisation of the minority Muslim community
OVE OF LUXURY AND OSTENTATION IN a coun- by an incumbent prime minister has dismayed not a few
try where nearly a billion citizens struggle for two Modi supporters as conduct unbecoming of an incumbent
Lsquare meals per day eking out nasty, brutish and prime minister with global acceptability aspirations. Cer-
too long lives, often — perhaps not often enough — leads tainly, Modi’s intemperate remarks are likely to cost the
to downfall. BJP votes in substantial numbers.
The precipitate fall of K.C. Chandrasekar Rao, who However, whatever electoral mileage the Congress
successfully carved Telangana out from the composite may have derived from the PM’s shockingly divisive
state of Andhra Pradesh and gifted it and the prized city remarks, may well be cancelled by Congress leader Rahul
of Hyderabad to the people of that region as recently as Gandhi’s promise to revert to arid neta-babu socialism of
2014, is a latter day morality tale. After serving two terms post-independence India, and to conduct a national caste
as chief minister, KCR was roundly trounced in the legis- census.This irremovable Congress party leader also seems
lative election of November 2023. to have learned little from recent history.
During his second term, KCR began to entertain delu- Alas, in India’s cancel politics culture, the voter invari-
sions of grandeur. He believed his service to the people ably has to choose the lesser evil.

154 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2024