Arun Srivastava
This Lok Sabha election has become a Kurukshetra for middle class and rural poor. This election will decide whether India is an inclusive culture or is the exclusive society. Though Narendra Modi uses the term rural poor and poverty but not in the inclusive sense. He is fully devoted to the exclusive society and is the champion of majoritarianism. It is only for getting the votes of the rural people that he maintains the façade of being sensitive to the poor’s need and committed follower of inclusive culture.
An insight into the Modi Government’s economic policies and programme would make it explicit that these reflect the needs and requirements of the middle class. This class favours market-oriented liberalization and reforms. True enough India has been witnessing this since 1991 but in recent times the process has been hastened. This class has its own values and priorities. For it the old values and traditions are redundant as they have lost their relevance. They are in hurry to change the polity which does not suit their interest.
The current size of India’s middle classes is around 50% of the population. But it is a mixed middle class society. There is no uniformity. The experts classify the middle class demographically. This can be broadly divided in three segments; classical middle class, middle class and neo middle class. What is significant is their interests vary. These classes neither have the same interests, nor do they speak with the same political voice. Of course one thing is uniform; they are against the rural poor. One development is also and it is the classical middle class and middle class nurse strong hatred towards the neo middle class. They nurse the perception that neo middle class is eating into their domain. The neo middle class has been created by the upward mobility of the creamy section of the backward, OBC, Muslims and dalit castes.
The India of their perception is completely different from the India of poor. It ought to be understood that India has different narrative for each of them. Attempt is to be made to find out what are the political implications of the expansion of this class? How will it affect the evolution of India’s democracy? Will they promote patronage politics and lower the quality of democracy? However one thing ought to be clearly understood that the upper castes, the leftovers of feudal families control the middle class supra structure. Though an impression is created that Muslims still belong to the poor category, this is not the fact. The Muslims are prominent components of the neo middle class. In fact it is the Hindus belonging to the neo middle class that are opposed to the Muslim NMC. They nurse antagonistic relations towards the Muslims.
The rising middle class feels strong reservation towards the labourers and workers. They hold the view that the Government should goad workers. This gets reflected in the approach of the Indian media. Their opposition reflects their fear and insecurity about disruption and income loss arising out of trade unionism. But this development has other dynamics too. IN today’s India substantial portion of the workers who can go on strike or assert their rights socially belong to the NMC. At the work place they are workers but at the home they identify themselves with the petit bourgeoise ethos.
It is significant to watch that the middle class nurses illiberal approach towards both the NMC and rural poor. The result of the 2014 Lok Sabha and installation of the Modi government provided the right ambiance to consolidate their position and gains. It is about to become the biggest single block. They have been rallying behind Narendra Modi as they visualize a safe future in his hands. They intend to promote this saffron politics as the future polity of the country. True enough this move of the middle class has little bit alienated the NMC from the middle class as well as from Modi. But this is not so pronounced.
Undeniably the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will witness the impact of this clash of interest. The confusion about who will win primarily owes to this. The more Modi and his disciple Amit Shah are striving to win the middle class the contradiction between the middle class and neo middle class is becoming pronounced.
The economists and sociologists usually hold the view that India’s “emerging middle class” is engine of growth. But it is not correct. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Indian middle class is unproductive. They have been thriving on the production of the rural poor. This class has accumulated capital, be it wealth or education or health. But did not put back their money in the economy of the country. Had they contributed to the consumption and domestic demand India would have progressed faster? Questions like, what does the Indian middle class really represent? or how are we going to explain the real potential of India to a prospective marketer? are yet to be answered.
Since middle classes remain vulnerable, they are dissatisfied with state services. It may sound paradox that while middle class is rising numerically, it is shrinking and feels incapable of defending the standards of living that have exemplified a middle-class lifestyle. The middle class is trying hard to smash the notions of old traditions and culture. An insight into the functioning of middle class would unravel the truth that middle class is stacking its wealth in housing, mutual funds or retirement Funds The majority of middle class wealth is locked up in unproductive assets or assets that only become available upon retirement or death.
Significant number of the middle class population veers towards authoritarian power structures to keep the screaming masses seeking social justice in check. In present time they have got their leader in Modi. The election of Modi who was widely seen as a Messiah of Vikas by the admiring middle class failed to bring cheer. The fact of the matter is the middle class income face decline. What a strange phenomenon these middle class continue to repose their trust in Modi in the hope that he will bring Achhe Din notwithstanding in the backdrop of sustained decline in creation of jobs..
The middle class intellectuals and academics are suffering with nasty sense of be wilderness about who to vote in 2019 election. While they are skeptical of Modi’s policies and his majoritarian approach, they do not find Rahul as a perfect replacement. They are unable to believe him whether he would protect their interest. They discard mahagathbandhan on the plea that their actions are discordinated fall apart soon. They ought to realize that these two lines cannot go together. A strong political leaders to a large scale would be vulnerable to pursue authoritarian path. The question arises what kind of individual you need to rule? Let us look at the performance of Modi during the last five years. The middle class people are so obsessed with Modi hat they find it a tough proposition to count his multiple failures. (IPA)
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