Remember the Chinoy Seth scene from the old Raj Kumar movie? It was the perfect metaphor for how poverty was romanticised and profit demonised in our movies – and our society. Things have changed, but not a lot. A general anti-profit sentiment is still seen as idealism in our society. Witness the hate that someone like Mukesh Ambani regularly gets. To be sure, at least some of it is justified because of monopolistic business practices and conspicuous consumption. However surely, the rumour about partly shifting base to London shouldn’t attract this much hate?
Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian and one of the richest people in the world. This is his latest big acquisition which has made headlines for many reasons.
Reports about the Mukesh Ambani family's big London acquisition were splashed across the media. So were stories of their plan to ‘divide time between UK and Mumbai’ as per this newspaper report.
Whether it is the obscene amounts spent on the Ambani wedding, the opulence of Antilla or acquisitions like this – this sort of thing irks people.
While there may seem to be no causal link here, people resent the fact that during the pandemic, while millions of Indians slipped into poverty, the rich have only been seen to get richer.
While the choices of some have contracted, others seem to have literally limitless choices.
As soon as reports about Ambani’s new London property acquisition were out, rumours and astronomical numbers started to fly thick and fast.
In recent times, we have had reports of HNI (high net-worth individuals) Indians moving abroad for a number of reasons. According to the BBC, 23,000 Indian millionaires had left the country since 2014 and that about 5,000 Indian millionaires left the country in 2020. Is Ambani another one of those, people are wondering.
Are they leaving? Why are they leaving? Social media is a place where memes spread quickly and misinformation even quicker.
The recent reports about an explosive-laden vehicle found outside the Ambani home in Mumbai and the murkiness around this could be another reason, thought the tweeple.
Social media posts started to be shared right way – claiming that the Ambani’s were looking to ‘escape’.
Are they running away from India like so many of the super-rich have in the recent past, or just hedging their bets wondered the tweeple.
There has been a trend of superrich Indians relocating outside India in the recent past. People saw the recent ‘news’ about the Ambanis as being something similar
Top businesses in India are always seen to support and fund the government of the day. Some of the tweeple felt that funding by Ambani/RIL could be impacted because of the new London acquisition.
With all the media reports and the speculation on social media, Reliance Industries issued a clarification. It is clarified that the Ambanis' recent acquisition is a business decision. The statement was meant to quash “unwarranted and baseless speculation in social media”. that the family was moving to London or anywhere else. In any case, it makes zero difference to any of us whether or not the Ambanis decide to spend a few days or several months in the UK each year – except meme-makers that is.
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