Lavish weddings

For a change this news from the Kashmir Valley points to normalcy, albeit it is meant to cut down the happiness quotient of the people. Indians are the happiest wasting own money — or seeing someone else do the same — on weddings. The guest control order for weddings issued by the J&K government restricts the number of guests, food items to be served, gifts, loudspeakers and firecrackers, things that turn weddings into a statement of ostentatiousness. Everyone needs to ensure that the waste of food and resources does not happen and environmental pollution is avoided, but who will make a beginning? The politicians who are supposed to pass laws to encourage frugality are the ones who normally turn weddings into a show of opulence and power.

The J&K guest control order and the Marriages (Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure) Bill, 2016, introduced in the Lok Sabha by a Congress MP, demanding an expenditure cap of Rs 5 lakh on weddings, overlook the fact that the Indian wedding industry continues to thrive in the worst economic downturn, even during the cash crunch caused by ‘notebandi’. The Rs 1.76 lakh crore wedding industry has created thousands of livelihood opportunities, startups and an army of self-employed wedding planners, makeup artistes, decorators, caterers and florists.

Certainly, the destination weddings planned in Macau, Bali, the Maldives, Mauritius, etc will remain out of the frugality purview. The rich can afford and splash and splurge but it is the common man who comes under tremendous social pressure to imitate the ostentatious wealthy. Egalitarian initiatives to curb vulgar displays at wedding time may be worth applause but how will such a rule be enforced? Beyond a point society will not be too pleased having a policeman playing the wedding planner.