Uncivic sense: Entitled behaviour starts from the top – India’s leaders must set a better example

On the weekend, a debateensued on social media after the emergence of a video showing Indian tourists having a community picnic in an airport terminal purportedly in Vietnam, plates of food spread out on the floor around them.

“When will we learn to travel with civic sense?” asked industrialist Harsh Goenka in response to the footage.

While many expressed dismay at this scene, some social media users offered justifications for the actions of the tourists: carrying home-cooked food on trips is part of Indian culture; eating on the floor is acceptable in South Asia; what was wrong if nobody was inconvenienced?

Therein lies the problem. Indians have become remarkably adept at defending behaviour that should actually invite introspection.

The issue, after all, is not about culturally specific behaviour patterns. It is the inability to distinguish personal convenience from public responsibility.

Vietnam has become a favourite new destination for Indian travellers. But if we turn their airports into picnic spots, spreading food and litter, we risk becoming very unpopular tourists. When will we learn to travel with civic sense? 😮 pic.twitter.com/pCSC63GHRH

— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) November 7, 2026

The picnic on the floor of the Vietnam airport is symptomatic of the chasm between India’s civilisational self-image and contemporary public culture. Blame for the malaise cannot be laid at the door of individual citizens alone. It must also be examined in the mirror of India’s politics.

Civic culture is shaped by political leadership as much as by families and institutions. A country’s leaders establish the standards of public life. What they say, celebrate and tolerate eventually trickles down to the ordinary people who form a society.

The founding generation of independent India, notwithstanding its shortcomings, brought intellectual seriousness to public life. They regarded politics as a nation-building vocation.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Abul Kalam Azad, Rajendra Prasad, C Rajagopalachari and BR Ambedkar often had profound disagreements with each other yet operated within a framework of constitutional responsibility.

Nehru’s speech on the eve of Independence reflected a political imagination that transcended the mere acquisition of power. “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” he declared.

Ambedkar, in his final address to the Constituent Assembly in November 1949, observed that constitutional morality “is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated.” A democratic spirit, as he contended, requires restraint, argument and accommodation.

But where India’s leaders once possessed intellectual gravitas, they are now encouraging personality cults. Indian political culture is increasingly becoming enthralled by extravagant events and personalised imagery.

As a consequence, it risks losing sight of democratic accountability. The idea of service is giving way to a deep sense of entitlement.

Gandhi once offered decision-makers an ethical talisman. When in doubt, he said, they should consider whether the action they are contemplating would benefit the poorest and weakest person they may have seen. How often does this test inform today’s political imagination?

The deterioration of the quality of public discourse is visible all around us. In Parliament, political debate is giving way to polarised rhetoric. Disruptions have become more frequent.

Outside the chambers, discourse has become much more coarse. For instance, India Hate Lab recorded 1,165 hate-speech events targeting religious minorities in 2024, compared with 668 in 2023.

A viral video of Indian tourists breaking into garba on a VietJet tarmac has reignited debate, one group's celebratory moment, an entire nation's reputation on the line. It's a reminder that as India's outbound travel grows, so does the need for awareness of how actions abroad… pic.twitter.com/0VLwZQjjPn

— Mid Day (@mid_day) May 29, 2026

Indians often try to deflect criticism about our fraying public culture by harking back to ancient greatness. The problem of majoritarianism, for instance, is dismissed by invoking the edicts of Ashoka, which advocated restraint, tolerance and respect for those who hold different beliefs. Also cited frequently in this context is the Sanskrit phrase “vasudhaiva kutumbakam” (the world is one family).

When confronted with questions about urban chaos, Indians frequently recall the city of Mohenjo-daro, dating back over four millennia, with its planned streets, sophisticated drainage and well-organised public spaces.

But a civilisation’s greatness is not established by ancient scriptures or nationalist declarations. It is reflected in the dignity with which people treat one another, the restraint with which leaders exercise power and the consideration extended to strangers.

India’s achievements deserve acknowledgement. Its diversity, constitutional framework and electoral participation are substantial strengths. The political environment today is admittedly more complex than that the one that the founding generation dealt with. However, this complexity cannot be cited as an excuse for declining standards.

The enduring contribution of the founding generation was to establish a constitutional framework within which profound disagreements could coexist without weakening the focus on national goals. That is an inheritance worth reclaiming.

Instead of displaying less pride about the perceived greatness of its past, India must become more deserving of that pride. The tragedy would not be that the world ignores India’s claims to civilisational greatness. It would be that Indians themselves cease to practise the values that made that perceived greatness possible.

The debate about video from the Vietnam airport is not simply about tourists eating on a terminal floor. It is about what India communicates through the conduct of its citizens – a sad reflection of the entitlement that increasingly afflicts many of us.

For that to change, India needs leaders who inspires citizens through their personal example. Through their conduct, they must remind their fellow citizens that a civilisation cannot trade indefinitely on its past. Instead, it must reclaim the values that it believes the world should admire.

Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd) is the former Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry.

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• Vietnam
• Mohandas Gandhi
• BR Ambedkar