Manu Joseph: What explains new harmful behaviours of India’s rich

livemint.com:

15 hours of the incident, and then, because of public anger, taking him back into remand. The teenager’s father, a builder named Vishal Agarwal who it appears had wilfully given him the car, reportedly tried to flee, but was eventually arrested. Stripped of legal jargon, the man was arrested for being a lousy parent and thus a danger to society.

India’s wealthy homes today are filled with this type. Once, India’s rich had to hide because it was very unsafe to be rich in a poor country. It was a time when the rich were called ‘industrialists.’ That generation of India’s rich had also sponsored idealism out of self-interest to defeat the era’s cultural elite, the British.

They either ended up believing these ideals or had to somehow sustain the noble myth. They knew what being vulgar was, and did not wish to do that. It was hard to hide their wealth, but their displays often had a public context, as with the aplomb of royals.

Even today, it is rare to see outrageous behaviour from the children of billionaires. It could be that billionaires are rare, so all incidents involving them appear rare, or it could be that when they do mow down people, that news gets slain. Granting all this, I still get the feeling that the children of India’s industrialists are briefed well at home to behave well and not kill people with expensive cars.

But the ordinary rich are a different lot. I can’t imagine those families telling theirs sons to be aware at all times of their dumb luck and be kind to those who are not as lucky. You sit with some of India’s wealthy, and all you hear is what money has bought and will buy next.