The Bent & the Beautiful are well and kicking…

Harish Khare

I am serving notice on the copycats. I own the intellectual property right to that phrase, the bent and the beautiful set. 

What we are witnessing in all these bank frauds is a Nirav Modi edition of that persistent phenomenon. I have been writing about this for two decades; I can honestly say that I am not in the least surprised at the rash of bank frauds — the Nirav Modis and the Choksis — irrespective of this or that chowkidar.

Only the most naïve will believe that the counterfeiters would have retired hurt from the scene just because there was a new chowkidar. The Bent and the Beautiful (B&B) set is a professional caste. They would defraud a bank for a lark — and, not suffer from any moral qualms or succumb to any kind of ethical queasiness. 

The B&B set is a logical byproduct of the post-1991 economic reforms. Because by then, the politician had lost the plot, the businessman was elevated as the new messiah. Greed and profiteering were talked about as new social values and as necessary virtues.

In 1991, we surrendered our power of moral disapproval. Any businessman or trader who called himself an entrepreneur was serenaded as a ‘wealth-creator’ — and, no questions asked of him. A new respectability was crafted for these elegant, beautiful people as they found new ways of gaming the system. The B&B set continues to grow manifold year after year.

Now the bigger ones of this set have a new ritual. They gather in summits — as they did early this week in Lucknow. They make promises to invest, they sign MoUs, pose for group photographs. The charade goes on. They let this or that chief minister pretend that he presides over a vibrant state. They make insincere declarations; the chief minister also knows that the MoUs signed would not be worth more than a scrap of paper. But both need each other; the businessman needs that photograph to browbeat the bank chairmen.

Some of the bigger ones are worming their way into defence production; while the relatively junior members of the B&B set — the Nirav Modis and the Choksis — want to become so big as to become untouchables, to put themselves behind the reach of the CBI. The name of the game is to acquire immunity from questioning and scrutiny.

Buy respectability. There are Bollywood stars, always ready to endorse, for a hefty fee, any dubious brand. Nirav Modi dreamed even higher; he ensnared a few Hollywood faces, too. The advantage of renting Bollywood is that it has its own embedded balladeers, who are professional celebrators of celebritydom. 

From Amitabh Bachchan to Kangana Ranaut, the celebrities help the post-1991 middle classes spend on status symbols, and make them feel good about buying extremely expensive junk items. Celebrities create the illusion of buying a better, superior life.

Then, there is that collusion between the B&B and a section of the media moguls, a mutually beneficial arrangement; the set procures immunity and easy glorification in the pink press and glossy publications. The B&B set is only too happy to pay if it is assured a cover story.

Once in a while, the crooks get found out but the larger axis of the bent politicians, the crooked businessmen and the unethical media moguls remains intact, performing in perfect jugalbandi.

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REVEREND Billy Graham, who passed away a few days ago, was one of the most influential Americans in the post-Second World War years. Interestingly, his passing away was mourned not only by President Trump but also by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in extremely reverential words.

During the mid-1970s when I was a student in the United States, Reverend Graham was regularly competing with the Presidents and Henry Kissinger for being on top of the “most admired Americans” celebrity lists that magazines so copiously compile. 

He represented a powerful tradition in the American culture — small-town evangelist preachers, many of them of dubious character, selling religion and themselves. (The phenomenon is most vividly depicted in Sinclair Lewis’ novel Elmer Gantry). But Billy Graham was the right preacher at the right time. 

Post-Second World War years were times of great uncertainty and anxiety for the Americans. The Atom Bomb had added a new layer of collective capacity for mass destruction. The Americans had inherited from the British the mantle of global leadership, and they found it burdensome. The Americans needed a reassurance, a moral and religious balm in that gigantic struggle they had locked themselves in with a “godless communism.” 

It was in this context that Billy Graham’s message of Christianity calmed the United States’ jangled nerves. He was the first evangelist to go big, combining the scale of organisation, technology (radio, television and satellite) and Christianity. With patronage from the American establishment, he acquired a global reach and following, probably more influential than many of the Popes. 

Unlike most of his ilk, he was wise enough to stay out of the divisive political and cultural controversies of the times.

I am inclined to believe that had there been no Billy Graham, he would have been invented. The Church is at the centre of the small-town America. The public life in “secular” America was always overloaded with religion. For example, major universities boast of a divinity school, which in turn are sites of serious religious scholarship and theological learning.

By making Christianity saleable on a mass scale, Billy Graham became the forerunner to the evangelical fundamentalism, which in turn effortlessly promoted and protected the New Right, from the 1970s onward. Jimmy Carter was perhaps the first President to hold Bible-reading classes in the White House; he made much of his Christian piety and eventually paved the way for Ronald Reagan and others. 

Evangelism, now, of course, is big business — and also big politics. The evangelist pulpit in the last two decades has become the platform for most divisive acrimony and bitterness in American public life. The evangelists demanded a right to monitor private morality. Suddenly, the same evangelical crowd is providing protection to Donald Trump for his ‘sins.’ The new, self-serving argument is that because he has won the White House, God must have put him there.

And, then, the Americans talk of the Islamists’ irrational exuberance!

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THE Pakistanis are having a jolly good time ridiculing Imran Khan for marrying his ‘spiritual adviser.’ Where was the need for him to release that ridiculous picture of his bride, gloriously covered in a veil, sitting next to him? Imran Khan’s third marriage encapsulates Pakistan’s difficult, national journey. 

This man was once admired all over the world as an accomplished cricketer. He was a gentleman, an Oxford-educated man and a definite contrast to his rival and contemporary, that uncouth but gutsy Javed Miandad. His was a polished presence, on and off the cricket field. When this ruggedly handsome Pathan married billionaire heiress Jemima Goldsmith, he became the envy of the London’s snobbish set. 

And, he became the hope of Pakistan’s middle class, a non-political leader, who would lead them to salvation and modernity, away from the generals and the kleptocracy. That was then. Things changed. “9/11” stuff happened. Pakistan changed; Pakistani society lost its autonomy to the mullahs and its politics and generals surrendered to the Taliban. 

Imran Khan could not remain uncontaminated. But, still, from Jemima to Bushra? From a society woman to a spiritual adviser!

We are all in need of a bit of spiritual infusion, but this search for spirituality is becoming complicated.

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IT is just as well that I do not need a spiritual adviser. A cup of black coffee perks up the spirits anyway. Join me.   

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