Vulgar display of borrowed wealth
13 Dec 2013 11:27 PM GMT
One of the lesser habits of the stinking rich happens to be making an unthinkably big splash when their sons and daughters get married. The rather revolting practice becomes even uglier in the cases when the said businessmen or women owe enormous sums of money to the banks. One such luminary happens to be Pramod Mittal, the younger brother of London-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. Pramod, along with his brother Vinod, prefer showering money on their children’s nauseatingly glitzy weddings instead of duly returning the borrowed money to banks, in this case a number of Indian banks. Not only have the Mittal brothers escaped paying back gigantic amounts of loans to the banks in this country through the dubious mechanism known as corporate debt restructuring, they have also shown the cheek to host the second-most expensive wedding in the history of matrimony, with over Rs 500 crore spent in the disgusting show of monetary muscle. As Pramod Mittal’s daughter Srishti, 26, tied the knot with investment banker Gulraj Behl in Barcelona, not only did the Catalonian capital come to a grinding halt, thanks to the retinue of VVIPS in their super-luxury vehicles and security guards causing veritable traffic gridlocks, but also the filthy show of malearned wealth made headlines, mostly negative, the world over.
As Barcelonians were inconvenienced in their own city, courtesy the near-curfew on the bustling city’s wide, verdant streets, the Indian tycoon splurged money that reeked of false glamour. Much like the hideous Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s 27-floor highrise residence in Mumbai, the world’s costliest home, the unwarranted show of wealth is a wasteful and vulgar habit that attest to the dropping standards of our moneyed elites. Instead of becoming embodiments of values, whether political, ideological or entrepreneurial, Pramod Mittal becomes the epitome of a crass crony capitalism that wants to gag criticism and buy flimsy, fair-weather loyalty with money that is not even rightfully his. It is because of the discredited mechanism of CDR that the likes of Pramod Mittal have been given a free rein in the country. He should be brought to book and made to repay the loans with immediate effect.
As Barcelonians were inconvenienced in their own city, courtesy the near-curfew on the bustling city’s wide, verdant streets, the Indian tycoon splurged money that reeked of false glamour. Much like the hideous Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s 27-floor highrise residence in Mumbai, the world’s costliest home, the unwarranted show of wealth is a wasteful and vulgar habit that attest to the dropping standards of our moneyed elites. Instead of becoming embodiments of values, whether political, ideological or entrepreneurial, Pramod Mittal becomes the epitome of a crass crony capitalism that wants to gag criticism and buy flimsy, fair-weather loyalty with money that is not even rightfully his. It is because of the discredited mechanism of CDR that the likes of Pramod Mittal have been given a free rein in the country. He should be brought to book and made to repay the loans with immediate effect.
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