Within bounds, pride and vanity are potent motivational forces, enhancing self esteem, self-belief and confidence. Drawing the boundary line is the real complexity.
In domestic life, happier is the male who sheds his vanities once the lady with the vanity case steps into his den. (In rare cases some have the boldness to shed the lady instead ). She has the uncanny knack of seeing right through him and to counter his vanities with her own. Putting vanities in her vanity case is the key to a lifelong marital accord . ‘Vanity well fed is benevolent, vanity hungry is spiteful.’
It is in the public domain that one finds exhibition of vanities especially galling. The other day while driving down Patna's central thoroughfare , Bailey Road, I noticed posse of cops, looking formidable and intimidating, posted all along this stretch of the road. No surprise, VVIP movement for sure! The traffic being hurried along moved smoothly, the laggards egged on by cops’ menacing glares, stentorian growls. Nor was I taken aback when I found myself at an inopportune moment at the very front when cops decided to pull everyone off the road. Quite naturally, I was rudely diverted to a side lane. My business lay just a few metres ahead, so I decided to cool my heels instead of taking a detour . I sat twiddling my thumbs, tweedledum tweedledee… occasionally staring back at what now was a deserted lane. A few pedestrians, some with bicycles, stood frozen on the footpath, looking resigned and bemused, sweat dripping from their brow under the hot, humid cloudless sky. Time ticked by slowly , wait stretching the minutes . I locked my car and joined the frozen bystanders staring intently up the empty lane. On the reverse lane the jam-packed traffic crawled. Out of nowhere the pilot car zoomed past with cops on the back seats wildly flailing their arms, pointing to curious onlookers to disappear. After an interval followed the cavalcade buzzing past at precise intervals, one, two, three.. .twenty six ,cars of all makes. PHEW. Suddenly the cops melted, horns of cars stuck on the reverse lane blared in unison. It took a while for the harried traffic police to restore order, rather, for the traffic to sort itself out.
Sorry, I have taken a lot of space to conflate something that routinely happens everywhere, everyday - the inconveniences VVIP movements cause. Not too long ago the dismantling of beacon lights atop VIP cars was trumpeted as a landmark event- abandonment of VIP culture. True to intent , this convoy had no beacon lights. But do VVIPs need to be nested in a convoy of 26 plus pilot cars on empty roads to convey them safely to places of their engagement ? If so, it is a damning testimony of a debased security environment. More likely, it is a continuing exhibition of appurtenances of power- VIP culture sans beacon lights. That’s why I earlier sermonized ‘shameless lies that are true’.
Vanity was on naked display, for Bihar remains at the bottom of all parameters of vikas, and nurture of social capital, little to be proud of.
The political class at the centre is no exception. A brand new commodious aircraft with exquisite décor and latest sophisticated gadgetry for the exclusive use of PM, re-commissioning of the special Presidential train ( decommissioned in 2008 ) have little to do with security threats but all with vanities of power. Does the nation have the socio-economic, military might to legitimize such display of hubris ?
First, take military might. Our armed forces have yet to acquire the fire power that deters neighbours from border misadventures. More soldiers than at any other time since 1962 got martyred in 2020 in the longest incursions at the Indo-China border , in parts still continuing. We may console ourselves stating that borders are undefined ; but the lines behind which Chinese forces withdrew in 1962 were largely respected till the April 2020 incursion. The longest incursion till then had occurred in the Doklam sector in 2013 when the Chinese retreated to post ante positions after seventy odd days. The 2020 incursion continues even after a year in some sectors. Would then the ostentations and publicity blitzerkreig accompanying the arrival of a few Rafale planes change world's perception of India’s firepower much ? In the past ,we were good to counter Pak and still are. Beyond that there isn’t much to boast about.
And we are a poor nation, like it or not. India has the largest number of destitute people in the world ; the largest number of unemployed and still counting, leaving the PM with no alternatives other than to exhort them to take up pakoda selling ; the gap between the rich and the poor keeps ever widening. Indisputably, we rank lowly on the global economic ladder with GDP per capita (in constant 2010 US dollars) at just $1961 in 2020 , lower than even Sri Lanka, and many times lower than the lowest among BRICS- SA $6748. The average for lower middle income and middle income countries is $2283 and $5075 respectively. As per IMF, in nominal GDP per capita (current dollars) India ranks 144 among 194 economies in 2020-21. Even among the Asian countries it ranks a lowly 33rd. Between 2014 and 2020, GDP per capita in 2010 dollars grew at a measly , at a rate as Hindu as in the 60’s.
While we have sufficient reasons to showcase our soft capital, the world is surely not bamboozled by our economic muscle. Our leaders globetrotting in exclusive luxury or inviting world leaders to the architectural marvel of a grandiose new parliament set in elegantly planned surroundings can only come across as affectation, unworthy exhibition of vanity.
The larger economies pamper us because we have the head counts they need for their goods, creating a maya of economic muscle that lacks tendons. Didn't I say Lucifer was on the prowl trading souls for vanities ?
Yogis, Babas, Sadhavis…on the path of other worldliness and a destiny in pursuit of knowledge requiring abjuration of vanity and ego as a prerequisite now seek and relish political power. Instead of losing ‘aham’ ,cultivate it. Many holy men acquire Y,Z security. Have they lost faith in Rama as their protector? I put my coin on pandering to vanities rather than any threat perception. Public representatives have some security detailed to them (in Bengal all BJP MLAs enjoy central security), its size a status symbol. In a country with 80% of its population in the 'poor' income bracket such display of vanity is truly baffling.
The politicians assure us of the sanctity of right to protest but when it comes to the crux political leaders would rather have their meeting grounds and travel routes sterilized from black flag waving or other form of protesters. Did one hear of the bizarre incidence of entry to the meeting ground of PM being barred to anyone wearing anything black even black shoes or black dupatta ? The supreme representative of 125 cr Indians does not speak to protesting farmers to find common grounds for resolution, as 'my way or the highway' is his abiding mantra. Arrogance of power and personal vanities are patently manifest in our current avatar of political life. Maya casting its spell within the world of maya !
We must be proud as Indians for a different reason. A rich heritage of cultural tapestry woven from diverse faiths, ethnicity and social mores , burnished by a philosophical bent of mind , and an adaptive, accommodative national character is our distinctive impress on the global map- a good cause for national pride. Every Indian’s chest should swell at that not just that of PM. Though poor, the nation need not carry poverty on its sleeves, but it requires of us to comport with due humility, not arrogance, pride and vanity.
We have miles to go before the dark woods of poverty are cleared, enabling us to stride across the globe with legitimate pride.
It has been a long piece of applesauce. I will end with a quote from a philosopher I much admire - Arthur Schopenhauer “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
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