BJP president Nitin Gadkari's girth - a matter of mirth

BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s girth has been a matter of mirth for a long time; but his recent surgical action to pare it down could portend an imminent change in what has always been a curious east-west paradox. In India, adipose is usually regarded a sign of prosperity, success and stature.

Weight and worth have always had a symbiotic relationship here, as ‘big’ people are expected to expand in tandem with their widening clout. Indeed, if success is not accompanied by the onset of lifestyle diseases, there is almost a sense of disappointment. We like our leaders and icons to be heavyweights in every sense of the term.

In the West, however, thinness is the surest sign that there is serious pelf and privilege to consider. Being Size Zero in the land of plenty is less a matter of metabolism and genetics these days, and more the result of an inevitably high-priced healthy diet of seasonal goodies picked up from the nearest Whole Foods outlet.

The poor, on the other hand, make do with high-fat pre-packaged fast food, and they do not have the wherewithal to get a gym membership, let alone a treadmill at home to sweat out those killer calories. Little wonder then that the stick-thin Obamas with their home-grown organic vegetables are increasingly seen as being divorced from beer-and-burgerbloated ordinary Americans.

India still has a long way to go before fat becomes synonymous with poor, and with inflation and corruption giving corpulence a bad name, belt-tightening and moderation have gained ground. This could force some Indians to change their stand on tolerating unabashed portliness, when it comes to those living off the fat of the land. Judging from Gadkari’s move to trim his profile, Indians are already finding it difficult to condone political flab.