Messi Mess! VVIP Culture Bursting at the Seams in India?

 

VVIPs are undoubtedly the highest privileged class possible in India, if not in many other countries too. VIPs are a bit lower in the ladder and they aim at qualifying fast for the path to the immeasurable favors adorning the highest class. With much easier access to big money these two privileged classes are mushrooming, pushing the ‘useless commoners’ to the lowest possible depth of deprivation and the consequent depravity. Any celebrity, be it the sports stars, the movie stars, the politicians or the industrial/commercial giants or the most powerful bureaucrats or even the organizers who always rub shoulders with the former segments, becomes a VIP and with more efforts involved in the process becomes the VVIP. Nothing is impossible for the VVIPs: want to enjoy a big event at your convenience for which the useless commoners, obviously, express the primary craze along with paying for it? No problems! You can have a darshan any time any day, just express your intention to the equally empowered to let you in! Want to attend the biggest dinner ever organized? No issues! You’ll get your free entry passes and constitute an integral part of the ‘invited’! The VVIP organizers in Kolkata understand this very well, but went a bit too far in demonstrating their obsession to selfie with Lionel Messi and in their indomitable greed to tinkle the box office vigorously, thus causing a Messi Mess and causing a palpable embarrassment to the Mamata government there!

Useless commoners or not, the Kolkata people as well as that of West Bengal have always been vocal in their love for the game of football, not only loving it but also producing great footballers over the decades and giving some credence to a normally listless Indian national football team. The VVIP organizers understood this very well and therefore issued tickets in abundance to let in the crowds to the stadium where they wanted to usher in the legend Lionel Messi. And they had the dare to call it a personal event!

However, they had to cater to the other VVIPs and even the normal VIPs thus allowing them to enjoy the huge opportunity to meet Messi and have precious selfie moments with him. And the combined might of the ‘invited’ VVIPs was so mammoth that they literally and fully sealed up Messi within them while the great footballer was ushered into the stadium packed with the expectant and paying crowds.  Initially enthusiastic and hurraying the legend, the hapless crowds soon realized that they entirely failed even to sight their icon, forget about the player waving at them. The Messi-obsessed VVIP organizers along with their cohorts didn’t bother to present Messi to the paying admirers, not bothering too about the most necessary parade of the legend round the stadium.

The deprived crowds resorted to depravity now, the only thing the useless commoners are capable of at any given point of time. They ransacked the stadium and the rest is history.

The embarrassed Mamata Government did some damage control by arresting the chief VVIP organizer and assuring the deprived people refunds of their ticket money. But who’ll recompense their real loss? And that too thanks to the whims and fancies of the VVIP class—a class always rubbing shoulders with the ruling VVIPs?  In India, all political parties have to agree that they have no disagreements with their rivals as far as patronizing the VVIP class is concerned. Whatever they say while coming to power about ending all VIP and VVIP privileges, the practices go on unabated and even with greater menace for the useless commoners. The Culture must be checked and prevented from spreading for their own good in the coming times!

Lionel Messi proceeded to the national capital Delhi later for a similar stadium appearance and the event went off peacefully. Perhaps the VVIP organizers there along with their equally empowered ilk learnt from the Kolkata Messi Mess and allowed the fans to have good views of the legend! The legend there circled the stadium and waved at the crowds. But the moot point is why go on promoting the privileged further and using the unprivileged often-unemployed useless commoners only for the revenues, the brownie points and votes?