R Ravimohan: The underbelly of our democracy

The apathy of the middle class towards the affairs of the nation is not only causing harm to itself but also to the country.

We boast of a strong middle class in India, which is growing and becoming wealthier by the day. If unified, the middle class will become the most influencing voice in India. However, being fragmented, it remains perhaps the most exploited segment despite being the largest net contributor in terms of taxes and levies or of political or policy freebies. Being silent, it also has been a mute spectator to the progressive weakening of the state to the extent that it is unable to protect itself and others. Why this disengagement, what are the unifying factors and what should be done to energise the middle class to take its right place of influence in the democracy called India?

We, as a nation, depend on both the trickle-down effect and the directed policies that devolve resources and employment to the poor. The latest National Sample Survey (61st Round, for 2004-05) indicates that between 1999-00 and 2004-05, the overall poverty ratio declined from 26.1 per cent to 21.8 per cent. Despite scepticism about the efficacy of these measures, the government continues to take policy initiatives to address poverty through subsidies, directed lending schemes, employment programmes, and the like. The rich and the middle class have to fund these programmes, with the poor being the beneficiary. However, the rich often leaven the hit on them, through means such as constructing a business shield to deflect personal direct taxes, or use captive power units to escape the higher electricity tariffs. The middle class is thus usually left to carry more than its fair share of the burden.

If wealth were to trickle down, the middle class will need to play an important role. This it does in many ways ""direct employment, contribution to capital formation and generating indirect employment, spending and creating demand in the economy, which in turn creates jobs and so on and so forth. Even though the per capita income of the rich will be higher than that of the middle class, the combined wealth of the vast middle class is more and therefore makes a greater systemic impact.

Apart from the unfair financial burden, the middle class faces many other systemic adversities. A major part of the middle class comprises salaried employees. They are easy game as regards taxing them, contribution to state funding, special cess, etc. and they have no elbow room to squiggle out as they are taxed before they are paid. The path to legal recourse is tortuous. The rich are able to get to justice faster than the middle class and the poor are able to gather numbers to support a cause that they deem worth fighting for. The middle class is caught in the middle with neither the political sympathy enjoyed by the poor nor the instruments of manoeuvre that the rich possess.

The apathy of the middle class towards the affairs of the nation is not only causing harm to itself but also to the country at large because it has created a vacuum of such magnitude that even a small group of people can hold the country to ransom. An aggregation of a few thousand people with grit and determination are able to get their voice heard. For instance, workers of the public sector units are able to effectively rally together in stalling public sector reforms, even though they are numerically inferior to the people of society at large who will benefit from a more efficient public sector. It is a pity that these movements seem to advance narrow self-interests rather than any national cause.

Democracy is a great form of governance. However, abdication by its largest constituency has robbed it of all its essential components, namely, active election, accountability, suitable checks and balances through effective opposition and a national agenda for the benefit of the nation as a whole. The state is progressively becoming weaker, unable to take decisive steps towards greater prosperity, and is vulnerable to minority power, as the majority is silent.

Why does the majority remain indifferent? Perhaps it is the upward mobility in their income levels that lulls them into a sense of false security. With its growing affluence, the middle class needs to consciously nurture a bridging function with society at large, to sustain a harmonious co-existence with the under-privileged. If the middle class can rally together, it can truly formulate a representative national agenda. It would have the power to hold all in office accountable rather than being the victims of an uncaring government. It can advocate a congenial plan to help people in poverty because they will have least vested interests to protect and pure national economic good will be put ahead of narrow self-interest, as they will realise that only by reducing poverty will their own tax and other fiscal burden reduce. The political class will get the right orientation to the service and progress of the nation, as it will have an educated and questioning constituency, rather than the weak compliant constituency that it is now content with.

What will it take to energise the somnolent middle class to become active? Surprisingly, the answer lies in a simple self-realisation that each individual needs to do really just three things. Vote. Vote right. Rent voice on policies that promote equitable national development in one's sphere of life. For instance, one could reject reservation in the educational system but at the same time petition one's employer to lobby with the government for free and full scholarship to economically needy, suitably supplemented by the employer's contribution, and agreeing to reinforce the faculty of the schools in the neighbourbood at no cost. A movement of this nature is equitable to the meritorious as well as economically weaker candidates and addresses an important national agenda, while conveniently remaining within the scope an individual's efforts. If most members of the Indian middle class do this, we can ensure a bright future for generations to come. Given the power of the free Press, internet, and electronic media, launching these movements on a national scale is now much easier than was the case with the satyagraha movement. Of course, another Gandhi would also nicely do.

ravimohan@crisil.com