It refers to a member of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC), cutting down menu for dishes to be served in a marriage-celebration to become a trend-setter for reducing mega-expenses on marriage-celebrations. It is a bitter undisputed fact that people in general usually take birth of girl-child as a bane rather than boon fearing heavy expenses required in marriage of daughters. An Indian industrialist spent €60 million (about Rs 505 crore) for lavish wedding of his daughter in Barcelona. It was even more disturbing when the industrialist was reportedly under huge debts of Indian banks which even gave the hint of his being a bank-defaulter also. Since there is an unholy race for mega-expenses on personal celebrations in a bid to exhibit richness causing problems for others in society especially middle-income people, Indian government should follow Afghan government by taking some steps to curb the menace under its noble mission “Beti Bachao : Bet Padhao”.
Effective measures are necessary to unearth source of income and wealth of such people who compete to spend lavishly in marriages. Union government should encash show of status on mega-budgeted marriages by imposing special marriage-tax in a manner that status-conscious rich may compete to pay more and more such tax to get their names endorsed in record-books. Political consensus should be developed so that welcome initiative started by the then Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit may be nationally adopted to compel elected representatives to boycott mega-budgeted functions.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
