If middle class means all persons from households with a monthly income between Rs.20, 000 -100,000
its size has grown from a paltry 25 million in 1996 to more than 160 million today...
The national elections of 2014 will be a litmus test for the middle class. Mere display of anger will give it a
short term importance; different political parties will fuel this anger for partisan short term ends; they will play to the gallery of middle class angst in the hope that this is all that is needed to seduce this class.
But the middle class must understand that anger and alienation without deliberation and careful consideration of what needs to change and in what manner, will be exploited, subsumed, subverted or derailed. For the first time since 1947 the middle class is a player in national politics. The time has come for it to make its choices carefully.
Pavan K. Varma, author, former diplomat and currently adviser to the Bihar chief minister.
Excerpted from his article in The Times of India, November 23, 2014.