HAZARE FANS==THINK AGAIN

THE MIDDLE CLASS HAS FAILED BUT THE MIDDLE CLASS MUST SUCCEED

Any article that I write that even gently points out lacunae in the middle class

attitudes invites a torrent of abuses .This has been my experience but

write I will. I note the sarcasm behind what some of my critics say but say I will.

A relative of mine informed me that she had admitted her 7 year old daughter to an innovative school about 45 minutes bus ride from Bangalore .She attracted the ire of many of her neighbours in a somewhat middle and high income gated community. She told me that she wanted her kid to be aware of the true India and not be cocooned by the kind of life and education that her friends were having.This school has several highly qualified teachers including P h.D ‘s all of whom work for a pittance of a salary hovering around Rs 10000 per month – a salary that a peon in many organizations will look at scornfully. This school invites kids from the poorest of poor families to spend several days every month in the school so that the other children get a feel of what real India is, beyond the malls.

It so happened that the kids were taken on an excursion to –no not to Bangkok or Singapore—but to a tribal village deep in Madhya Pradesh to live among severely deprived tribals in one of the poorest districts of our country. The teachers and students discovered something that the media has not .These tribals –the Pardhis--were evicted from their thousands of years old homeland to make way for a project. Despite promises to the contrary no compensation was paid years after they were evicted. No land was made available and they were in effect left to fend for themselves. The poor tribals approached politicians of both the BJP and Congress but not one cared to even listen to them .When the tribal men go to the police they are tortured and when the women go there they are raped—this has been going on for years. When this was brought to my notice I informed a few media people with a request that the plight of these desperate people be brought to national notice and their heartbreaking story be told to the middle classes. My efforts have failed.

It is many experiences like this that have convinced me that, as is but to be expected given human nature, our middle class gets worked up only when its interests are affected .It is true that the Hazare phenomenon is about our terrible disgust with corruption and it is also true that this cancer affects the entire society. But my questions are as follows:

Are we prepared to admit that corruption affects the poor even more than it affects us?‘

Are we prepared to concede that the middle classes are not raped or tortured the way the poor are?

Are we able to realize that while the media manages to highlight our concerns it rarely gives tells us heartrending stories that the poor face daily. For every Jessica Lal there are several thousand poorer cousins that face even more ghastly ends.

Do we accept that India’s inglorious reputation for harbouring the largest number of slaves in human history is at the cost of the poor?

Can we accept that it is the poor that are affected by our reputation of having the highest number of child prostitutes in the world?

What is the probability that there will be a mass movement mainly enacted by the middle class on these subjects?

What is the probability that our media will give ball by ball coverage for such a movement should this ever happen? Remember the concept of TRP’s.

I am afraid we are so caught up in OUR lives ,issues, problems and opportunities that the crises facing our poor are rarely ever the focus of our collective anger the way corruption is these days.

Finally it is the poor have patiently borne their tragedies—for far more than the 42 years that are being talked about these days. They do not have the advantage of being represented by high profile media savvy civil society activists.They have nowhere to go but to the Maoists

I believe the middle class has failed the poor but they MUST succeed in working for the emancipation of the poor. It is they who can influence the powers that be

Incidentally should someone in your family get a job in an organisation that has a factory in an interior tribal district in M.P spare a thought before you tell your NRI cousin that ‘India is fast changing. My nephew has got a RS 50000 p.m salary and he just 24 !!’

Think of the fact that the factory was built after raping hundreds of women, torturing thousands of men, who are now on the edge of starvation. They die so that we live and prosper .

K.R.RAVI