Power brings about fundamental changes in the personality of leaders. It inflates their ego, turns them into megalomaniacs who term themselves above the law. No throne is golden enough for them, no limo big enough. Late last week, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao achieved his dream. He had been building a `50-crore dream home—a 1,00,000 square feet bungalow on nine perfectly landscaped acres. It has all high-tech mod cons; its bathrooms are reportedly protected by bulletproof glass to guard KCR from snipers while he is taking a shower.
All this was built with the taxpayer’s money.
Taxes collected have been spent by rulers to build edifices to their glory. They use it to bask in a sense of immortality and impress coming generations with their extravagant might. And the power of their reigns. Both Karunanidhi and Mayawati built statues of themselves. Kalaignar’s was torn down by enraged people. Mayawati’s statues stand overlooking vast expanses of green in aesthetically designed public parks across Uttar Pradesh. Along with Buddhist architecture and concrete elephants, which embodify her party symbol, she is telling history that she was around—much like royalty turned their tombs into massive monuments.
The difference, however, is that Mayawati and KCR are elected leaders in a democracy. They are not meant to splurge on palatial residences in which they arrogantly hope they will live forever. However, in the public mind, these elicit no admiration. Only disgust.
The difference between the luxurious palaces constructed by emperors and political leaders is context. Emperors wanted to make their people feel good by the virtue of belonging to a powerful nation. The British tried to impress upon the natives the magnificence of their realm. For tyrants, big is beautiful. Adolf Hitler got Albert Speer to build mammoth buildings to glorify a Thousand-Year Reich, even as he sent millions of Jews to gas chambers. Stalin built huge, ugly edifices of concrete to impress his power on a terrified people. Modern palaces of tyrants such as Saddam Hussein and Middle Eastern dictators symbolise their ability to inflict harm. Go back centuries, and you’ll see that the Egyptians and the Romans built great structures such as the pyramids and the Colosseum with slave labour, indifferent to the sufferings of millions. Even as the buildings were of vast proportions, the people lived in squalor and poverty. Even ostentatious utilisation, such as the buildings of great universities and libraries, spoke of the power of the ruler.
This mojo isolates the rulers from the people. Elected politicians have a sense of entitlement that prods them to misuse public money—the psychology behind corruption. They see loot as a sign of power like any medieval invader did. Politicians enter politics not necessarily to serve the people, but to serve themselves. KCR is a classic representative of such lavish imagination.
The number of BPL families in Telangana went up from 2.24 crore in 2016 to 2.81 crore. There are over five lakh child labourers in the state. Nearly 16,000 Telangana government schools have no water in their toilets. But these facts are irrelevant for a chief minister in search of posterity. KCR fancies himself as the father of Telangana. Shouldn’t his children be proud of his palace?
ravi@newindianexpress.com