The middle class turns away from the PM

The core constituency of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has always been the middle class. It was the class that benefited the most from the economic reforms in 1991. It remained his silent admirer all these years because the reforms were not popular with the majority of the people. It saw in him an example of a meritocrat rising above the venal political class. The middle class did not always vote for Singh. It favoured the nationalist, conservative, even reactionary politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as against the socialist, secular rhetoric of the Congress. But when it came to judging Singh, it had no hesitation voting for the man with its gratitude. This simple, silent bond between the middle class and Singh has broken in the last few months, in the wake of the series of scams, from that of A Raja’s 2G allocation to Suresh Kalmadi’s Commonwealth Games financial mishandling. Even the Adarsh Housing Society scandal is now laid at the door of the prime minister.

In the beginning the middle class saw Singh as an honest man who had nothing to do with the political quagmire surrounding him. From 1991 to 1996, it was PV Narasimha Rao who was the villain of all the things that went wrong. So in the eyes of his admirers, Singh had nothing to do with all that was wrong with the Congress and its corrupt ways. Of course, he was a member of the Congress ever since he entered the political arena. He has made it a point to be seen as a politician though everyone, including his middle class constituency, thought of him as too much of a gentleman to be a politician. Singh did not want to play the game of being an outsider who did not understand the vileness of everyday politics. It was his admirers who refused to accept the fact that he was ready to bear the cross of being a politician.

Even during his first term as prime minister, Singh was spared the criticism. The sharpest criticism of the main opposition party, the BJP, was that he was weak and ineffective and not his own man. By the end of 2010, the scandals and corruption that overwhelmed the UPA-II, and friends of Singh were not willing to give him the privilege of being a non-political prime minister anymore. In an abrupt turnaround, they are now pinning the blame on the man for pervasive corruption.

There are two reasons for this. For the first time, the middle class is feeling the pain of market economy in recession. It is bitter and angry and in an irrational manner thinks the prime minister is somehow responsible for its economic anxieties arising out of the 2008 market meltdown. Corruption comes in handy to nail Singh at last. They are not willing to accept that an honest man cannot do much to fight the corruption around him on his own. They are now convinced that he had the power to prevent corruption and remove the persons responsible for it, without realising that then he would be bringing the roof down upon himself and his party, if he does so.

Singh is unlikely to wilt before this middle class offensive. He would perhaps consider this as the moment of political baptism. It is quite likely that Singh’s detractors in the Congress would want to use this opportunity to pull him down. He has become that much more vulnerable in the quicksands of corruption. Singh, though, must be relishing the moment when he is fighting the classic political battle of shrugging charges of corruption against his party and his government.