Thankfully NYT’s Mumbai correspondent only wrote "In the last century, Mahatma Gandhi was the most famous and powerful private citizen in India. Today, Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way.” And didn’t say the Senior Ambani is being reincarnated as Mahatma Gandhi of this century.
I’m grappling to understand in which different ways that Mr. NYT correspondent has compared Ambani to Gandhi, though I understood the “famous” part of it, but why private citizens? The “private” Gandhi himself stayed in an ashram, which he started as a project for people from different religion to live together. The Ambani is building a 27-storey house at an estimated cost of $2 billion with a helipad in it. The “private” Ambani also wants an airport for his private jets. Privatization of public properties is being private?
Perhaps, his regular NYT readers can understand why Mukesh Ambani is “widely regarded as playing that (Gandhi’s, I assume) role.” I grew up reading national newspapers, and with due respect to Ambani, the only comparison I could make between the two is they both have a Gujarati lineage.
The silly differences that I find between them are: Mukesh Ambani didn’t make peace with brother (Anil Ambani) and vice versa after their father’s death, while Mahatma Gandhi always preached peace. Mukesh Ambani gifted his wife with an Airbus 319; and Gandhi, forget gifting a jet, had always traveled by Janta-class of Indian railways.
The correspondent further writes: "Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become." Is he then comparing Mukesh Ambani with Mahatma Gandhi on basis of their caste, baniya?
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1 comment:
Hi, nice one...
i completely agree, no one can possibly take the place of Gandhi. For this, NYT journo need to understand the history and present more deeply, rather relying on the stories published in Indian media.
Still, Ambani's (Dhiru => Mukesh, Anil)are the most powerful businessmen and private citizen in India. I am not counting bureaucrats, politicians etc, simply because they don't earn their power, they get it. Just think about the opportunities they have created for millions of Indians in last 3 decades. I agree, they are not serving humanity and making their money. But why they shouldn't?
They are leaders, innovators, capitalists, big thinkers etc in their own respect.
But the status Gandhi have in our society, nobody can touch.
I respect and admire both Gandhi and Ambani but for 'different reasons'
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