Middle classes and the anti-corruption movement

Corruption affects most people, from all walks of life. How is it that the middle classes responded to the movement with alacrity though poorer classes bear greater brunt of the malaise of corruption ? How is it that they come to champion the cause ? Is corruption free India more in sync with their growing self image of hard working, honest individuals not having to indulge in corrupt practices (both at the government and the private interfaces) in matters of urgency in their daily life : residential property purchase, school admissions, utility connections, hospital admissions and medical treatments and so on ? Does having middle classes leading a global ‘anti-corruption’ campaign (where no-sectional interests are highlighted, say, not specifically dealing with or highlighting specific problems faced by minorities or dalits) detract from the movement ?

Can the corruption in the Indian public life be correlated to the urge of the new ‘liberated’ entrepreneurial India, the ‘financially’ successful and impatient Indian middle classes to ‘get things done quickly’, ‘get what they want and feel they deserve’ by any means, fair or foul ? They wouldn’t mind breaking or bending a few rules, which, according to some of them, are archaic and deserve to be broken or bent. And in this endeavour, they are being ably helped and led by corrupt government officials and indeed the entire system of governance. Some people have seen in the impatience displayed by those associated with the Jan Lokpal movement about the parliamentary procedures a reflection of the same contempt shown by a lot of the youth and the upwardly mobile middle classes for the government systems and procedures they have to encounter in their daily life. Will this energetic upwardly mobile, aspiration driven middle classes forego their propensity to bypass rules, legal framework in their impatient urge to succeed against competitors ? Will they abide by rule of law even if others around them seem to be breaking the same ? It is there that their moral graduation will be put to test.