If you have reached this article, chances are you belong to the educated middle or upper-middle class, the typical newspaper reader. You are what they call in India the somewhat more privileged class, even though everything you have achieved is through your hard work. You live in a proper house with toilets, have nutritious food on the table and perhaps even enjoy a few modern comforts. With basic needs met, you have a view on the society you live in today. You want your streets cleaner, government less corrupt and society more just. Some would say this a good way for a citizen to be, for any country. However, here is the catch. If you are like the people mentioned above, chances are the Congress party hates you. Yes, you, your personal aspirations and noisy demands from the leadership are not liked. Congress is unable to handle, and frankly would rather do without, this set of achievers in India who have learnt to figure out right and wrong. According to the Congress, you are the mineral water and ice-cream eating class. You have no idea of ground reality or what a poor person feels. They dont like you. But they like the so-called Rest of them. You question their scams, while the Rest doesnt care. You want accountability, the Rest is OK with them being just rulers. You want better jobs, education, infrastructure, healthcare and security. The Rest, well, wants it too, but has learnt to be content with some food grain to prevent starvation. You want the leaders of the Congress party, including the first family, to face the media. The Rest, dont want to trouble the king. Frankly, you my friend are such an irritant you have taken the joy out of politics. Luckily for the Congress, the Rest have been in far larger numbers than people like you. The Rest have supported them and kept them in power, decade after decade, despite living wretched lives. Despite not having electric power or toilets or schools or jobs, the Rest have believed Congress is going to remove poverty in the next three months. It is the Rest whom the Congress targets with messages like this: We will remove poverty for you. We will save you from the majority religion, which you must be constantly scared of. We will sign papers that say right to this and that, but we will not have the resources to provide you this and that. So what if prices keep rising? We are there to ensure you wont starve. Be happy now, OK? To the irritating educated middle class, these messages dont work. They dont believe the Congress. They want more. Fortunately, they have been in small numbers and so not enough to cause election upsets. Well, not for very long. The rising middle class means the Congress support will dwindle every year, unless they make some radical changes to the way they look at common Indians. In particular, two major beliefs within the Congress party are seriously out of date. The first is the Congress feudal mindset. It believes in the mai-baap nature of the government, where citizens fold their hands and wait for the rulers to be benevolent. Their top leaders make statements like we gave India computers, we brought in mobile phones, we passed this law or we gave food.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 10:34:30 +0000
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