I just returned from Mumbai - my first visit after the recent events. Much has been written up on these events and one of the most common criticisms has been that this event compared to others from the past got a disproportionally higher level of media coverage since the targeted establishments were more frequented by the affluent section of the Indian society. I suspect this is true, and in its own way it is good. I find that the more affluent Indians didn't have much of a use for or daily interaction with the government. Sure you still need a passport to travel but most affluent Indian homes make their own basic or incremental arrangements for education, medical care, utilities and security. As such there wasn't a sense of real accountability of the elected officials and government bureaucrats - the educated and economically active Indians didn't ask and the economically deprived and uneducated Indians just accepted what they got. I see this starting to change as more and more affluent Indians are starting to ask the question. What have you done
for me recently ?
Eight years ago we were hiring software engineers in Delhi and I could see for the first time these men and women truly internalized the fact that the world is their oyster. This fundamental shift in the thinking of the youth to a "I can make it happen" mindset fundamentally changed the course of events from the previous fifty years and put India on a growth curve third to none. A similar paradigm shift is in the making - one hopes will result in a truly accountable democratic government, not just the largest.
