'Indian Culture is buying Honours'- why Baroness Flather is wrong.

This is Baroness Flather speaking in the House of Lords- 'The noble Lord, Lord (Swaraj) Paul, said something about Indian culture . I do not know which Indian culture he was speaking of; I do not know of that culture. The only Indian culture that I know of in this regard is buying honours, which certainly is Indian culture. I hope that it does not apply to him.'

Contra the noble Baroness, buying honors is part of Universal culture, what is specifically Indian is only doing so when it can become the basis of an act of utterly gratuitous infamy. The point here is that honours which can be bought are no honours at all. Only that title which is freely bestowed, that too seconded by popular acclaim and elite acknowledgment, is considered honorably won, provided of course, it commemorates a genuine and lasting fraud upon the public or the the invention or refinement of a source of mischief certain to be fatal to the commonweal if allowed to burgeon unchecked.

The context of the Baroness's outburst was Lord Alli, perhaps the only Gay /Muslim/ Afro Caribbean/Asian/Multimillionaire/Working Class Peer- notwithstanding certain persistent rumors about Lady Thatcher whom I can personally assure you is not Muslim but Saivite- trying to play the race card on behalf of 3 Asian peers who'd gotten caught in the expense fiddling scandal.

Incidentally, the Baroness's ancestor was Sir Ganga Ram- a great engineer/ agriculturist/ philanthropist- who certainly didn't buy his knighthood.