Our Feudal Lords

12% of scientists and 38% doctors in the US may be Indians, but at home our idiom remains stuck in the feudal era. Our political leaders don’t meet people; they “grant an audience” (See extract from DNA newspaper, below). Our business leaders don’t join school kids at a sports meet; they “kindly agree to give away the prizes”, with a boring, long-winded speech to boot. The favors and fawning raj is as ubiquitous as the more reviled license permit raj.
At one large Indian firm, lunch is served by seniority. When our politicians move on the streets, the world has to come to a halt. It doesn’t matter how great your need – you could be student rushing to an exam hall or a pregnant woman racing to a hospital. All wait while our feudal lords stride forth to solve such national crises as attending a venial warlord’s son’s wedding. Indian bosses expect their underlings to squeeze themselves into invisibility when they pass by. And if you think security has anything to do with this, how come it disappears when they need to woo their voters or beg their shareholders to approve their latest corporate fraud.

From DNA Newspaper (Sunday, March 02, 2008)
"Much to the chagrin of UPA ally and DMK boss M Karunanidhi, (Mrs) Gandhi granted an audience to his nephew-turned-foe, Dayanidhi Maran."