Panic, middle class, and pandemic

Baffling why the middleclass around me calls itself so when itrsquos actually the economic upper class Consider 700800 million Indians make Rs 100daymdasheven the private driver in Mumbai making five times that falls into the uppermiddleThe selfdiagnosis I suppose is to distinguish oneself from Indiarsquos richestmdashthe HNIs or High Networth Individuals the likes leading up to AmbaniAdanimdashthe fractional difference between their income and yours being as muchmdashif not moremdashthan yours and the poorest IndianrsquosEither way the babu class I speak of urban professionals rich peasantsmdashpermanently linking their Aadhaar to credit card to bank account to cellphonemdashhas neither the real numbers to severely impact Indian elections Only the poorest do Nor do they own enough wealth to secede with homes abroad at will Only the real HNIs can quietly getting richer stillWhat does this supposed middle constitute then According to The Economist Indiarsquos ldquopolitically noisiest classrdquo They have the spare energy and basic education for drawingroom banter taking abstract culturalhistoricalpersonality sides like their nightly news anchors Which makes them socially influential although only between elections while the state goes about its dayWhat could ldquogovernmentrdquo mean to them Access yes and therefore naked opportunisms that follow Otherwise it could mean anything Given that even the thought of entering a state hospital in a city sends them shiversmdashnever mind that there is hardly any of it in the rest of IndiaCollectively they distract themselves with pointless chitchat on social media and elsewhere secure in the knowledge that private healthcaretransportelectricityeducationetc will sail them through anyway Some abhor state subsidies for instanceBecause none of them will ever need it Neither will a dead body anonymously floating into a river be their loved onersquos Nor will anonymously living bodies walking between cities and villages during a pandemic be someone they know hopefully There is empathy chiefly among equalsSuch is how insulated life goes on What if that social pact called privilege built out of both fear and favour is summarily broken How can it Could there appear a universal public problem ever in life that you canrsquot anymore throw savingsmoney or your contactsnetwork at That it doesnrsquot matter anymore who you knowareTrue story That you could be the ailing serving chief secretarymdashhead honcho of provincial bureaucracy which in turn forms the topmost layer of Indiarsquos intermediate classmdashand not find a single hospital bed at AIIMS in the state capital Having lost the lsquogolden hourrsquo you die of a virus at a private facility What of the rest of the entire statersquos privilegedThat you could be artist entertainer CEO media personnel any other major professionalhellip If you arenrsquot dead yet yoursquod go from WhatsApp to Facebook to Twitter typing ldquoDeepest condolencesrdquo with a prayer emoji If not sharingretweeting SOS messages for bedsmedsoxygenICUmdashnever once bothering to even tag top organs of the state in case theyrsquod help For whatrsquos the point And whatrsquos so private about a hospitalDo you still fall for positivity frauds claiming India will survive this Of course it will Or do you whisper that instead to those already dead Because they were India Better still do you obsess over a national image abroad As if Indians are dyingmdashto show India in a bad light And significantly whorsquos to say this is a oneoffBut could you please not make this about the Prime Minister Hersquos been Indian middleclassrsquo favourite topic of debate splitting living rooms into war zones Everything canrsquot be about him Unfair no Yes thatrsquos what I hear around meAnd assume all observations made against the governmentmdashit didnrsquot act enough or at all to procure vaccines carried on electioneering advertised and held the national superspreader Kumbh Melamdashcan be countered by robust rebuttalpropagandaSure the ones critiquing the ruling class are yet the same smallish lot who firstly didnrsquot vote them in and they criticise the government on everythingmdashDelhi riots farmersrsquo protests demonetisation complicated GST religious CAA human rights in Kashmirelsewhere censorship lawsmdashcalling it a ldquocrisis generating machinerdquo anyway Maybe any government wouldrsquove proven ineffective to the scale of Indiarsquos population and the Corona spread ldquounexpectedsuddenrdquo as claimedStill How does one give the PM credit for defeating the same virus in January and not assign equal responsibility when Covid19 becomes the number one cause for deaths in MayItrsquos not a surprise that even the desi middleclassrsquo Public Intellectual No 1 initiallyeventually the establishmentrsquos cheerleader the ldquovery upbeatrdquo Chetan Bhagat has had to speak up And be counted for the number of vaccines that couldrsquove saved us Maybe he has personal friendsfamily suffering like everybody elseTo be fair he found IPLrsquos cricket matches being playedenjoyed when people were dying ldquoweirdrdquomdashpresumably in poor taste But massive constructions for new palaces for PM vice president and the parliament with the same limited public money carrying on uninterrupted during the pandemic as something he doesnrsquot care about much Thatrsquos just an argument over ldquosymbolismrdquo It doesnrsquot have anything to do with the larger issue of vaccination Chalo yeh bhi sahiMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper