Stop worshipping at the feet of the wealthy

I HAVE seen a lot of words used to describe the wedding of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, to pharmaceuticals heiress Radhika Merchant. “Lavish” gets a lot of play. Then there’s “extravagant”, “opulent”, “glamorous”, luxurious”, “grand”. I’ve seen the “there are weddings and then there’s the Ambani wedding” formulation used by at least three magazines, too.

But grotesque? Obscene? Distasteful displays of wealth in a country – India – where inequality has increased so dramatically over the past decade or so? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but I haven’t come across many such accusations. Especially surprising, from certain corners of the British press in particular, has been the lack of digs at former prime ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, both of whom flew to Mumbai with their wives for the occasion.

Whatever happened to the great British tradition of wealth-shaming? It seems to have gone out of fashion. It’s not that I want to bring it back per se – particularly when it veers into snobbery about the nouveaux riches – but I do fear its absence is symptomatic of a culture that has swung too far in the opposite direction. We have become comfortable heaping praise on the rich for being rich, and seem to have lost our distaste for ostentatious displays of wealth.