Someone just shared a picture of Arvind Kejriwal on Facebook, probably to show that he/she was influential enough to get a picture of himself clicked with Arvind or just in praise of the new icon of democratic protests in India. Another someone commented that he was impressed to see the simplicity of Arvind and his home. And I found that disturbing. Why should simplicity be impressive? And why should we loathe something that is rich and grand?
India, having its roots in religion and philosophy very deep, has always marvelled at the image of the reunciator, or the Sanyasi. The four ashrams of a human life culminate into Sanyaas where one is supposed to give up all that one has earned in his life. We have also held in great respect people who do not earn anything at all and just live on begging and alms. Not only did Brahmins glorified living on alms but Buddha took it to a much higher level. The simplicity of food and clothing also gave Mahatma Gandhi the respect of the people. We get amused to see that men who could have made millions have actually decided to lead a simple life.
But, then, do we not also accept that it is a great deal to be able to make a lot of money and hence a greater deal to have voluntarily quit such wealth. In a country which is primarily poor, placing a higher value on renunciation and simplicity than on affluence and wealth is paradoxical. We marvel at Gandhi and Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal but we want our kids to get the best education and get a very good job, the "good" directly meaning well paid. In fact, for ourselves also we want good money and all the comforts of life. But why feel guilty about it? There is nothing wrong in being able to lead a life of comfort and richness and one should strive to reach that. My present economic situation is better than my father's and his was better than his father's. That is a development. I would want my offspring's economic condition to be better than mine. I wouldn't rejoice that my offspring should not get the affluence that he/she deserves.
Renunciation, however, is different from poverty as the former is voluntary and the latter a destiny. Through out my childhood days, I have heard from my parents how they only had one pair of clothes when they were kids and how they got their first shoes after coming to the city. And they saw a pride in the fact that they were able to give to their children much more than their parents could do. I am sure most parents feel this way in our country. But when it comes to political or business icons, our value system changes. We want our politicians to lead a very simple life and not be a rich man. And if one is rich, our first assumption is that one is corrupt. A similar value system exists for a civil servant as well. Even businessmen, who are in the profession of making money, are ridiculed if they show off too much affluence. We, however, fail to acknowledge that in our country, the fair means of making money are limited while the desire to make money is as normally present as in any other society.
In such scenario, we train our kids to be good in academics so that they get a good job and lead an affluent life. But we do not want them to become politicians or entrepreneurs, mostly because of the risks involved. Though most of us want our kids to become civil servants, it is mostly because of the non-monetary perks that the job provides which shall ensure an affluent lifestyle. So, in a world, where everyone wants to be richer than they already are, we are no different. But we don't want our leaders to be so.
One of the arguments is about empathy. Only a leader who leads a simple life can understand the problems of the poor and then find solutions to them. Apparently such a value drove Gandhi too to adopt the lifestyle of an ascetic. But do we want our rich to live like the poor or the poor to live like rich. The government spends lakhs of crores to ensure that the poor rise in the socio-economic hierarchy, but if that rise is too much for us to digest, we find his methods corrupt and wrong.
Arvind Kejriwal is a brilliant example of what our families want their kids to be. He qualified the JEE and entered IIT Kharagpur. Then he qualified the UPSC and entered the IRS. His wife is still in the IRS. He did not do IIT and IRS because he wanted to lead a simple life and work for the poor. He did this because he was a good student and wanted to do best in all fields. It is sad to see that such a sucess icon of the socity should also fall prey to the populism of leading a frugal life to get public acceptability. His wife should be an Additional Commissioner of Income Tax or would be soon becoming a Commissioner of Income Tax. Both of Kejriwal's kids are in schools, I suppose. They must get good schools and leading a simple life should not force them to get into an inefficient government school. They should also be able to crack IIT and UPSC and become successful in their lives. And we should be happy if Arvind's son becomes a great engineer and an entrepreneur and makes huge money for himself. I would consider him a success then.We would want our kids to do the same. Gandhiji, in his own obstinacy to lead a simple life did not give his children the best education and guidance, of which we have read a lot, especially about his eldest son. None of us wants to become a Father like Gandhiji, irrespective of how much respect we have for the Father of the Nation.
Let us praise the likes of Dhiru Bahi, for fighting against all odds because he wanted to make money albeit using methods not completely legal in those times. (with change in govt policies now, those methods are totally legal now) Let us also praise owners of Flipkart.com for making so much money so quickly and also praise all those individuals who have done extremely well in their life in terms of material terms. It is because of these people that we feel that we are moving ahead. We do not want a society where providing primary education and a rudimentary primary health centre should be the maximum that a citizen should expect. We want a society where every kid should be healthy like hell and should have an education to get through institutes like IIT's. We should have more rich people in this country and less reunuciators. We should have role models who inpsire us to do better in life than to give up on things.
Let us not assume that honest people should lead a poor life. Let us not idolize Anna and Kejriwal and compel our young generation to lead a simple life. Let us create opportunities so that honest people can become rich and create a value system where richness does not connote corruption and dishonesty. Let the desire to make money be a valid desire and let us equip every single individual in our country to live up to his/her own desires.
