Parallax View: The government just does not get the new, empowered, middle-class India

Anybody watching the way this government has behaved over the last few months will be left with only one

conclusion: the government just doesn’t get it.      First of all, it does not understand the nature of the problem. In fact,

the problem is not that difficult to identity. Over the last decade, a new India has developed based on a newly-empowered and affluent middle class, which believes in doing things to standards that are global and world class.

 

   Unfortunately, our politicians are part of an old India. They see no reason to change the way in which they have functioned for decades. Their corrupt ways are the same; only now, as India has become richer, there is even more money to be made.

 

   So there is a mismatch between the middle class’s view of India and politicians’ view of the old slothful, corrupt India.

 

   Secondly, the problem is compounded by electoral democracy. In England or America, the middle class anger would have manifested itself in electoral defeats for corrupt politicians.

 

   In India, however, the middle class is not electorally significant. The numbers are not on its side and it probably cannot swing a single Lok Sabha constituency on its own.

 

   Elections are decided by the poor for whom – let’s be brutally honest here – life has not changed dramatically over the last decade. They have been denied the benefits of the new prosperity and do not necessarily understand the middle-class obsession with a New India. Nor do they have the information required to know what global standards of governance are.

 

   Thirdly, the government knows that it draws its power from the old India in the form of the electorate and therefore is not sure how to cope with the concerns of a newly empowered and aggressive middle class.

 

   So it goes from one extreme to another. It refuses to give in to public demands for Raja’s resignation for months. Then it suddenly puts him in jail. It first ignores Anna Hazare then it accepts his people as the role representative of civil society and then it turns around again and antagonizes them. It first pays court to Baba Ramdev, then it unleashes the police on him.

 

   Fourth, once the middle class senses that this is a government that has lost its way it smells blood. During the UPA’s first term, the middle class believed that Manmohan Singh was interested in creating a New India and put its faith in him. But in his second term Manmohan Singh has become a silent figure with no agenda and no interest in changing India. Some of the middle-class anger stems from what it sees as his betrayal of its concerns.

 

   Fifth, once the government decides to ignore the middle class’s concerns with the creation of a New India, then others step into the breach: so-called civil society activists, godmen, failed politicians now recast as social reformers etc. Because these people seem to be responsive to the middle class’s concerns, they acquire a spurious legitimacy.

 

   Assume for the purposes of argument that the government does eventually understand all this – and it shows no signs of doing so – then what should it do?

 

"The government already has a UID programme run by Nandan Nilekani. It needs to get more people like Nandan involved in bringing transparent systems to Indian governance."

   Some ideas:

 

   It should realize that there is more at stake than just its own survival. The middle class is now losing faith in the entire electoral system.

 

   And if the electoral system is discredited then that is the end of Indian democracy. That is the real danger – not just the possibility that Manmohan Singh will lose his job.

 

   Much of the onus lies on the PM. It is hard to believe that a man of his decency, intellect and integrity has gone from being a national hero to something of a national joke. Manmohan Singh and his supporters say that this is because the Congress does not let him function. This is nonsense. But if he believes it is true then he should do the decent thing and step down and let somebody else have a go.

 

   In fact the problem is not that there are obstacles in his way – governance is about surmounting problems and overcoming obstacles. The problem is that Manmohan Singh has become a do-nothing and say-nothing Prime Minister.

 

   He must tell us what his agenda his. He must show us that he is committed to a vision of a New India.

 

   To that, he must first talk. His silence is the subject of so many jokes that he must realize that a nation needs to be seen to be governed. The people need to hear from their leaders. It does nobody any good for him to sit and brood at Race Course Road.

 

   The anger with the government – with the whole political class in fact – is about a lack of transparency. It is ironic that a government that passed the RTI Bill and whose own CAG has exposed so many scams should face this charge.

 

   But Manmohan Singh should understand that the criticism is about financial opaqueness. All government contracts should be awarded openly and fairly. All information on every deal should be put on the net. We need to know the truth about how our natural resources are being handed over, about how illegal mining is robbing the country blind.

 

   This is a systemic change but it is not difficult to do. The government already has a UID programme run by Nandan Nilekani. It needs to get more people like Nandan involved in bringing transparent systems to Indian governance. If there has been transparency, the 2G scam could never have taken place.

 

   But most of all, it needs to show us that it is committed to the ‘same idea’: honest and transparent governance for a 21st century super-power. You cannot have a New India with Old India-style governance.