Neighbour Aunty came to pick her milk packets this morning and instead of the usual lamentabout her maid asked,”Have you got your TV?”
Tthe para (as they say back in the east) can talk about nothing else now. Large posters withpictures of party stalwarts were dropped into the mailbox and thrown into the porch aboutthe dates, times and locations where people could go register – get their cheeti as Jagadha said, to claim their free TV from the government.
“No” I told NA. “We already have a TV.”
“So what?” she said.”They’re giving it free. Why don’t you get it? Then you can give itaway. I’m going to.” And then, “D’you have an AC?”
“No,” I replied.
“Ummm.. but you had one didnt you?”
“Yes, long ago, When …”
“Anyway, get the TV,” she said and left.
That’s the buzz and everybody is talking the free TV distribution which has finally reachedour neck of the urban jungle. It’s a upper middle class ‘nagar’with more and moreindividual bungalows falling to 1+3 apartments, end-to-end concrete with space to park themandatory SUV and trio of sedans. Has it’s fair share of luxury cars too – not exactly thekind of place where folks need free TVs – more a hot spot for LED home theatres – in fact the cousin down the road quite cheerfully deafened us when demonstrating his newacquisition recently. And yet the free TV scheme has every body out and scrambling.
“You should get the TV,” was Mr M’s advice also when he came to collect the monthly rationsfor the orphanage. “If you don’t collect it, some one else will in your name.”
Ah, yes – moral imperative – to prevent the government from diverting the susbsidy.
He apparently had collected his. Appa feebly (you can only be feeble in a conversation with Mr M) quoted the rule that you have to declare that you dont have another TV.”I told themthe other TV was my son’s,” he said. Which son, i wonder – the one in Washington DC or the one in Geneva? “You can also say that this TV is your daughter’s and get one.”
Again Appa protested that it wasn’t right or necessary for the government to subsidise uswith a free TV. “Why not? you take subsidised electricity, dont you? It says so on the current bill,” Mr M said triumphantly.”Then why can’t you take this also?”
Ah, so logical imperative – all subsidies must be availed off. Never mind that a TV is hardly essential like electricity or clean water.
The watchman working on Reddy’s Folly across the road also advised us to go get theTV. “Big, big people in cars are coming and collecting their TVs,” he told us. “Have you got your cheeti at least?”
…So here’s the question – What is it about the Indian middle and upper classes thatanything free, any government scheme – no matter how pointless, politically loaded anddebilitating to the state must be grabbed and the grab justified? Even if we leave side the need for the government to distribute TVs anyway why do people who already have at least one, if not more, swank, hi-tech TV apart from SUVs and ACs and memberships to sassy gyms, need another one? Just because it is free? They all have to make false declarations, stand in endless lines in this summer heat and go through a minimum three-stage process to get – hold your breath – one small, 14-inch TV set.
And yet, you’re seen at best as an idiot, at worst as a criminal if you dont get your free,government TV! It’s freaking me out – the waste, the horrible middle class righteous smugness which can justify anything. Doesnt anybody see
a. the colossal waste to the state – even assuming no one made a killing on the supply andsale of TVs
b. The fact that most poor households shouldnt really need to spend that extra RS 300 everymonth to watch something on that TV – in a state where only Chennai with it’s corporate concentration is spared 5 hour + power cuts!
c. that access to a TV is not a necessity like access to water and electricity and healthcare – which the government must subsidise for the needy (again not the fat middle class). That a free Tv will not improve a single vital indicator – in fact may actually send literacy levels plummeting?
Why are the Indian middle classes -with their access to education, employment and materialwealth so stuck in a hand-out culture? The same class that will scream itself hoarse anddenounce the government’s free electricity to farmers (not the subsidised tax holidays toIT fat cats)and free bus passes to school kids, has no compunction in taking a free TV thatthey clearly don’t need and will not use. It matters not a pin to them that they have liedand subverted a government scheme (whatever its merits), that they have colluded with the government to rip off tax payer’s money that is meant to provide at least basic necessitiesfor all citizens like clean water and a decent education – the money for this scheme couldhave provided decent toilets with water for all the government schools across the state andprevented a plethora of infections…
BTW, has any MP or MLA built and maintained public toilets with MPLADS – will bet not one -clean toilets don’t get votes…Would love to know…
