A new ‘Gandhi’ shakes India

The streets of India are choked with anti-corruption crusaders, and walls are marked with busy slogans. Last week in Delhi I noticed a bumper sticker: "I AM FOR A CORRUPTION FREE INDIA. ARE YOU?" Who could fail to agree with that? It is the sort of self-righteous political claim (like "I'm pro-justice. Are you?") that is designed to cancel debate rather than to encourage it.

In its assertive power, it matches the stunningly successful campaign of Anna Hazare, the born-again Gandhian who has tied up the government in knots with his hunger strikes.

The authorities find themselves in an absurd, unwinnable situation.

Since the 1990s, India has changed faster than at any point in its history; its GDP has doubled in just over a decade. The partial unshackling of the economy from state-administered control by the 'Permit Raj' has set in train an economic and social transformation.

Unlike China, which depends on exports, most of India's boom and its rapid annual growth rate of 8% arise from home-grown expenditure and consumption. Billionaires abound in India, even as hundreds of millions remain trapped in grotesque poverty. But perhaps more important in the longer term, is the emergence of an ambitious and assertive middle class.

This new middle class is impatient. It is not particularly concerned with constitutional niceties or conventions, and it has seen other, less privileged social groups gain political concessions through muscle power on the streets. Immediately after Independence, many institutions of the modern state were set up or adapted from the colonial period.

Some have functioned well, while others have not. In the two decades since liberalisation, these institutions have proved inadequate for dealing with the rapid pace of change. The police and the CBI are often incompetent or corrupt. The legal system is woefully slow, and almost a third of senior judicial appointments are unfilled. {Read on}

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