When they were out in the porch of the hotel, Pandey pulled out a pistol from his car. They would have also seen how law-enforcing authorities — including the police — kowtow before the open misuse of power. Anything asked for must be made available.This kind of VVIP lawlessness was again on display last week by the pistol-brandishing shenanigans of Ashish Pandey, son of Power Tools Suppliers a former MP of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).Ashish Pandey, accompanied by some friends, including three UK-based women, had an altercation with Gaurav and his friend, Hina. The entire unsavoury incident was captured on video, and has gone viral, replete with the most foul language used by all the participants — including the women. In fact, they are encouraged to believe that they are a law unto themselves."When Manu Sharma shot dead Jessica Lal, or when Rocky Yadav put a bullet through the head of Aditya Sachdeva, or when Ashish Pandey brandished a gun at the Hyatt Regency, they were confident that their power, their influence, their money and their band of "chamchas" would see them through their act of criminality. Expletives flew fast and thick. They have grown up in an immoral cesspool where the primacy of law but rarely intrudes.

　　Rocky and Ashish Pandey would most likely have grown up in an atmosphere where electoral "winnability" finesses ethics, and the race to power asphyxiates morality. The Rockys and Ashish Pandeys of this world have both. In his path-breaking study of a village in Karnataka, M. Such brats flaunt their affluence: expensive cars, designer clothes, lavish lifestyles, women as accessories, and limitless money to spend.Why do so many progeny of the powerful in our country behave so outrageously? The answer is blunt: They believe they have the ordained right to do so. Cheating in exams is hardly a major offence when they have seen their influential parent buying an MLA or MP ticket, spending huge amounts beyond the electoral limit set by the Election Commission, and conspiring to bump off irksome political opponents.The disgusting thing is that such brats are never short of hanger-ons. This time the incident took place in New Delhi, in the premises of the five star Hyatt Regency, on the night — or the early hours of the morning — of 16th October. A finger pressed on the trigger of the menacing gun was all it required for another Rocky Yadav-type tragedy. Far from doing the right thing, they are idiotic enough to understand that might alone is right.

　　I have often said that in India there is only one real definition of an orphan: someone who has neither power nor money. Their parents believe that their ill-begotten money, earned through milking public office, must be used to spoil their children silly. As Tulsidasa aptly says: "Samaratha kar nahin dosha gusain, ravi paavak sursari ki nahin: (The powerful can have no faults; they remain as pure as the sun, the fire and the Ganga). Fortunately, the hotel staff managed to separate the warring group. Rocky’s father, who tried to hide his son when police was looking for him, got five years in jail. This feeling of being above the law is their prime inheritance. The case against Yadav was pursued relentlessly. Hence, they are surrounded by those who encourage their dissolute debauchery. In our country — with few exceptions — politics corrupts; "successful" politics corrupts absolutely.N. Those who question them are labelled as self-righteous nobodies. Conventional pursuits, such as doing well in school or college, are scoffed at as priorities of the less privileged. Fortunately, it made little difference to chief minister Nitish Kumar that the criminal was his own party leader’s son.