Return of (& end of?) the priviligentsia?

Veeresh Malik
25 June 2013, 01:32 PM IST

There are two online references to the term "priviligentsia" pertaining to the widely used Chinese term meaning the same thing as pertains to matters of the WaBenzi sort in India. One is by Rajiv Desai, then of The Tribune and then IPAN and now as Comma, and in a column with the Times of India about a decade ago he wrote thusly:-

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2005-05-11/edit-page/27836222_1_ticket-counters-free-tickets-influence

"Today, it is more difficult for politicians and bureaucrats to lord it over the general population." And, "Today, both poor and rich are on the fringes of mainstream society. An explosive growth of the middle class has put the privilegentsia on notice."

Recent updates on his most interesting blogs imply that he may have changed his forecast.

The other reference was by my friend Madhavan Narayanan, in further reference to the fine black magic art of lobbying which in India mainly means setting up monopolies for the private sector by PR hook or by corporate crook, in the course of a social media discussion on the subject. Where he said, "I was just on Lok Sabha TV and when the anchor said bye, I stopped him and added, Constitution also talks of Samata (equitability) ...what we see now is that Licence Raj has become Licentious Raj."

As the UPA raj and darbar reaches a decade of its existence, question beng asked here is not whether they will continue in power, or whether some other formation will emerge, for most of us, it is 12 of one and a dozen of the other.

Question is - how on earth, in the last decade or so, have we become a country where the neo-feudals, neo-colonials and the neo-hifi have all got together to form this tight group of people called the priviligentsia cornering almost everything in India, when they were supposed to have gone under a decade ago?

Take for example the issue of luxury cars being bought on public account - details can not be published for fear of contempt or calumny, but the cost of the list of airplanes and cars demanded and bought by their Excellencies, Lordships, Babus, Mantries, Santris, PPPs and other worthies including Vice-Chancellors and Chairmen of loss-making Boards and PSUs and others that has reached me would easily make requests for Relief Funds look like morbid jokes.

Or, check out how the Centenary celebrations, or any other celebrations or events for that matter, at institutions which are public authorities but many were or are still blessed with titles that include "Imperial" or "Royal" in their name, are happily paid for out of public funds. I'm talking clubs here with membership waiting lists running into decades.

What has happened over the last decade has obviously been that in addition to the politicians and the bureaucrats, more and more segments of society have hopped on to the privilegentsia bandwagon. And all at public cost.

And there is no point in pointing fingers only at the politicians and bureaucrats, though there is also no doubt that things could not have reached this level without their active participation.

What is however more worrisome is that this ailment has now spread into what can best be called the monopoly private sector also. Airports, roads, hospitals and similar.

To give just one example:- a

To some extent, the people of this country will be able to, in due course, counter the public sector government priviligentsia. It has to happen. We can not be told to stop buying gold while they keep adding to their perks.

How, on the other hand, are we going to tackle the private sector thugs? And now they want corporate lobbying to be totally legitimised.

Coming on to 10 years of the UPA Government, India has become for, of and by the priviligentsia. And to counter the first article on the priviligentsia written almost a decade ago, I would like to quote from a more recent one in the Economist, which ends thus: "As the ongoing protests in Brazil indicate, the middle class cannot be taken for granted. It can be a source of political stability, but it can also suddenly turn very angry when its interests are ignored."

Either all of us in the middle class become priviligentsia, which is simply not possible, or the priviligentsia shakes up its ideas and does some quick back-tracking.