Politics
Delhi Gymkhana Club row a distraction for Modi’s billionaire Raj
P.In fact, no one outside the Delhi Gymkhana Club will shed tears over the Narendra Modi government’s sudden eviction notice on grounds of ‘security’. The exclusive 113-year-old club is located on 27 acres of prime land in central Delhi, its members dominated by former bureaucrats and retired military personnel – the so-called Lutyens elite.
But what is really rich is the rhetoric. TV channels owned by billionaires Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani and Subhash Chandra are discovering their inner social justice warriors, railing against the cheap gin and tonics consumed at the Gymkhana Club.
Like right-wing populists around the world, the Modi regime claims to attack the elite, yet it has facilitated the greatest concentration of political and economic power in Indian history. His cronies have effectively received thousands of millions of dollars in capital grants, tax breaks and valuable forest land, while the majority of India struggles with rising prices, unemployment and record household debt. To cover everything up, sometimes you need easy targets.
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The facts are well known, even if a section of the Indian media wants you to examine them.
- There has been an unprecedented concentration of economic power across sectors, with the share of non-financial assets of the five largest conglomerates rising from 10 percent in 1991 to 18 percent in 2021. Former RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya showed that this concentration stokes inflation, because large monopolies wield both pricing power and influence to lobby for higher import duties.
- Workers are suffering: real monthly wages of self-employed and salaried workers in 2023-24 were lower than in 2017-18, government says numbers. Real wages for agricultural labor increased by an average of 6.8 percent under the UPA and -1.3 percent – yes, that’s a negative sign – under the Modi government.
- The result? The Indian “billionaire Raj” is today more unequal than the British Raj: the richest 1 percent earn 23.1 percent of income and own 40.1 percent of all wealth.
India has always been an unequal society. However, after independence there was an attempt to move it towards greater justice, even under liberalizing governments. The Modi government, however, has simply waged a class war in the other direction, on behalf of its billionaire and financier friends.
He gave a massive corporate tax cut in 2019, which cost the exchequer Rs 1.45 lakh crore annually and disproportionately benefited the richest 0.7 per cent of all businesses. It also allocated an additional Rs 1.97 lakh crore to primarily capital-intensive businesses under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, 2021. The result? The tax benefit has been devoted to dividends and loan repayments, while private investment remains stagnant at 12 percent of GDP. The rich flew to London, Dubai and Singapore, and now their money is following them, taking the value of the rupee with it.
The government bulldozed through amendments to redefine forests to open 1.97 lakh square kilometers for “development” in 2023. It attempted to redefine the Aravalli Hills – a 670km range in northwest India that acts as a natural barrier against desertification, heat and groundwater loss – to facilitate further “development” (read: rampant mining). The Supreme Court intervened to stay both proceedings, but this did not end the Modi government’s apparent determination to reduce the quality and length of life of citizens.
Also read: Avoid the lies that Delhi Gymkhana Club is a secret power center and answer 5 questions.
BJP billionaires and BFFs
The term “pro-rich” does not reflect Modi’s style; it is reserved for the richest of the rich. Remember the use of India’s leading investigative agencies to enrich his friends. It’s no secret that developer after developer has ended up divesting valuable assets in sectors like ports, airports And cement to the Adani Group after being raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department, leading to Gautam Adani briefly becoming the global leader second richest man.
The same agencies appear to have been used to extract political financing of companies. Before the Supreme Court considered electoral bonds as illegalthe BJP received Rs 2,471 crore in political funding from companies under investigation by the ED, CBI and Income Tax – 69 per cent of which was extracted after raids at these companies. In the end: BJP received Rs 5,717 crore in donations of companies in 2024-2025, more than 13 times what all other national parties received.
Maximum extraction, maximum concentration seems to be the goal. Everyone is a victim, the only beneficiaries are the BJP and its billionaire BFFs. How can we expect businesses to innovate and be competitive when the path to success goes through the coffers of the BJP?
This cannot and will not last forever. As Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi said writingthe number of “play fair” companies far outweighs the number of “match-fixing” monopolies, whether the large number of startups or established local businesses that just want to go about their business. The damage to India’s business environment is severe and likely to get worse before it gets better.
But when this government falls, much repair work will be needed to bring about a fairer and more vibrant society. Until then, the assault on our resources and pockets will continue unabated, with periodic distractions in the form of token strikes on unimportant privileged islands like the Delhi Gymkhana Club.
Amitabh Dubey is a Congressman. He tweets @dubeyamitabh. Opinions are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)
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