Wedlock of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant have Drawn All Eyes, Criticism Follows.
The youngest son of the Ambani family, Anant Ambani, said vows of togetherness with Radhika Merchant, the eldest daughter of the billionaire Merchant family on Friday evening. It was a three-day celebration that was attended by renowned celebrities from all over the globe including personalities from entertainment, sports, politics and business industries. Other than all the Bollywood and prominent national figures, famous international artists and other professionals like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, John Cena, Kardashians and the likes of them had been making presence since the pre-wedding and it’s all over the media.
The extravagant celebration was organized in the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai from 12 July to 14 July 2024 with the estimated expenditure of INR 5000 crore! This includes the pre-wedding saga that had been in motion for months, the jewelry and outfits, the cheques of celebrities and almost everything else too. This was no surprise as Isha Ambani’s wedding was a similar hype, however, lesser crores were spent to tie that knot.
Backlash against Luxurious Nuptials.
Millions that have been swiftly spent are being looked at with critical eyes. Contrast is being drawn between the uncountable Indians that go to sleep hungry and the billionaires who don’t hesitate in throwing deep-pocketed parties to other millionaires. While it’s being referred to as one of the most expensive weddings the world has ever seen by most, some critics are calling it a “vulgar display of power and wealth”.
The idea behind this has to be the fact that India is still an underdeveloped nation where around 80 million people are living under the poverty line. Malnutrition haunts the citizens to this day with around 16.6% of Indian population being undernourished. Starvation becomes the cause of deaths of many poor people whose lives are deemed insignificant. CNBC published an article in January 2024 with the headline “Hunger is India’s ‘biggest problem’-”.
In such a country, when a grand celebration is taken to an international stage to showcase its royalty, it is bound to raise some eyebrows. “Shame on people celebrating income inequality in a country where we need wealth redistribution!”, said Shamita Yadav, a content creator with the username ‘The.ranting.gola’.
At times when the world is facing atrocities and evil is taking new shapes, when it is the responsibility of media to cover the ongoing crisis and deliver a fair understanding of what’s happening, it is taking shelter under the infinite posts of this wedding that have started to flood the internet. Many urgent issues that require being addressed, like the regional war in Manipur, are hindered by such an ignorance of the media.
While it is the earned money of the Ambani family and they have the right to spend it on themselves however they fancy, a more thoughtful show of expense is expected from the richest man of this developing nation rather than displaying “extreme privilege in impoverished country”.
The Preceding Mass Wedding: Generosity or Tokenism?
Prior to their son’s marriage, Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani hosted a SamuhikVivah (mass wedding) on 2 July 2024, Tuesday for 50 “underprivileged couples” from Palghar. This seems to be a good gesture for starting the actual wedding on the right foot. Upholding the religious beliefs of charity and helping the needy, the Ambanis spent some amount on this mass wedding and gifted jewelry, cash and other important household items to the couples. It also included food for the newly married and the guests.
Again, questions are being raised for this being a generous gesture or mere tokenism. Did the billionaires do this to save themselves from being called out for the ostentatiously costly and luxury celebration?Was it a just-for-show good act to have the audience applaud them?
