Charity may begin at home. Apparently, billionaires now begin at Rs 22,000.
They were around a few months ago, gently nudging us about a ‘last chance’ to become potential millionaires. They are back again. Clearly, I have missed the bus – again.
This time, the familiar trio doing the algorithmic rounds are Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and philanthropist-author Sudha Murty. All three are urging us not to let February 19 slip by. Invest Rs 22,000 today. Harvest Rs 5 lakh a week. Or Rs 70,000 a day. Or Rs 20 lakh a month. The arithmetic is flexible. The guarantee is 100 percent.
The familiar faces of instant fortune
The visuals are impeccable. Rajnathji in his bandhgala suit and shawl over his shoulders. Nirmalaji in Kanjivaram silk sari, explaining fiscal miracles the Budget somehow forgot to mention. Sudha Murty, with grandmotherly reassurance, introduces a platform that apparently does what decades of economic reform could not – mint crorepatis between breakfast and lunch.
Credit where due. The lip-sync is near perfect. The tone persuasive. Artificial Intelligence has clearly matured. Natural Intelligence, less so.
AI at the summit, AI in the scam
The irony is exquisite. As India hosts AI summits and panel discussions on ethical frameworks, AI is busy endorsing weekly incomes higher than top CEOs’ salaries. I am tempted to ask – can AI not detect AI? Or is that a feature reserved for the next fiscal?
The script, as always, is elegant and cruel. A modest Rs 22,000 unlocks a ‘Government-backed’ system, Nirmala ji says. No risk. No effort. No Parliament notification. No RBI circular. Just immediate prosperity – in a country where engineering graduates queue for Rs 20,000 a month.
Any person with minimal acquaintance with arithmetic might pause. If Rs 22,000 reliably generates Rs 20 lakh a month, the finance minister need not trouble taxpayers ever again. The fiscal deficit could be retired before Holi and we could all golf with Ambani by Diwali.
A guarantee too good to be true
Yet the clips circulate. They are removed, then reappear before one can say Artificial Intelligence or Deep Fake. Clarifications are issued – discreetly. Meanwhile, money moves faster than fact-checks.
The more worrying part is not the technology. It is the appetite. The dream factory thrives because hope is cheap and greed is evergreen.
Until enforcement acts swiftly, the scammers will keep promising business-class lives – and the State will keep issuing clarifications from economy class, long after boarding is complete.
‘Greed is evergreen’ is classic. When greed is there, need always misses notice.