Not even Manoj Kumar has the stomach for making a Kranti today. And no Bane is coming to bring about a revolution in India’s Gotham cities. Arvind Kejriwal is sorely mistaken if he thinks that middle class India can be woken up from it’s deep, dark and tired slumber. But then, that is now and, that is the middle class. With a 6% growth projected due to drought conditions in the country, we are looking at tumultuous times ahead with income and employment stress that can throw up all kinds of political equations; even a revolution of sorts. Whether Messrs Kejriwal and Co. will lead that revolution is to be seen.

Today’s youth may not remember the JP movement of the ’70s, which was the most powerful political protest movement that anybody in free India can recall. It was in 1974 and ’75 that he called for a Total Revolution, a call that Kejriwal repeated on Friday from Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal called out to the Indian masses saying it was time for a Sampoorn Kranti, to throw out the government because ‘the people’ are coming. The former army chief General VK Singh thundered “Sinhaasan chhodo janataa aati hai”. And these slogans were met with thunderous applause by crowds of young and middle aged people who have never been exposed to Leftists’ slogans before. Of course they would be enamoured. Revolution is the dream of the young. Till middle age and its baggage of compromises, responsibilities and truths of life hits you.