TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
Whether Robert Vadra has committed any irregularity or not to promote his business is not something that this column wishes to discuss. On the contrary, in keeping with the true Indian tradition of patriarch patronage, it is hoped that Mr Vadra would come out clean and do his mother-in-law proud! What, nonetheless, inspires this write-up is the fact that Robert Vadra has done a unique service to the world of literature by evoking the creative urge with which the writers and poets of this country traditionally portray the character of a son-in-law in their themes and novels with a civilisational richness known only to Indians.
In a conventional Indian household, a son-in-law is often treated with pompous hospitality quite in contrast to a daughter-in-law who is treated with contemptuous disdain. In other words, while a son-in-law’s presence in the house evokes joyful gratitude, a daughter-in-law’s presence in the house provokes ungrateful sarcasm. This is also the reason perhaps that we keep coming across news about a daughter-in-law being burnt alive by her in-laws but hardly ever do we come across the news of a son-in-law being set ablaze by his in-laws. And, the greatest privilege enjoyed by a son-in-law is that unlike a daughter -in-law who is the donor of dowry, the son-in-law is the recepient of dowry in coin or kind… much as is the case of Robert Vadra who is not an ordinary son-in-law but indeed the nation’s son-in-law.
For a son-in-law who is blessed with in-laws who are rich and famous, there is however an obligatory constraint to compromise a part of his self-respect…. more so if the in-laws also happen to command the influence and clout like Nehru-Gandhi in-laws, a reality which perhaps slipped the mind of Robert Vadra who forgot to take a leaf from the story of a senior son-in-law in the family namely Feroze Gandhi who had consciously chosen to maintain a separate identity and a separate house even if that meant causing some degree of displeasure to his famous father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru and wife Indira.
Old timers would recall that far from getting bogged down in an unsavoury scam lke his two generation junior peer Robert Vadra, the first generation Nehru-Gandhi son-in-law Feroze Gandhi had been instrumental in exposing the infamous “Mudra” scam much to the embarrassment of his father-in-law and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the exposure of scam had led to resignation of a minister in Nehru’s cabinet.
The importance of being a son-in-law may come as a privilege to anybody including an ordinary common man but the disadvantage of constant public scrutiny for being the son-in-law of famous and mighty comes as a privilege only to lucky few. How did Robert Vadra forget this ? How did he forget that every son-in-law in India had secretly wished to be in his place and that every son-in-law in India looks at him with envy? Umapathy conjures up poetic remorse to regret that not everybody is blessed to be a “charmer” and a “wooer” like Robert Vadra……”Jise Tu Kabool Karle, Woh Ada Kahan Se Laoon ?
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