In the Business Standard, Vivek Dehejia on the emergence of India's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP):
More hereTo many observers of the Indian scene, the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is nothing less than a cataclysm, upending settled assumptions about the upcoming general election as a contest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Yet, one's genuine enthusiasm over the arrival of a fresh voice in our national political discourse should not blind us to the fact that, far from being a uniquely Indian event, the rise of AAP mirrors the rise of similar movements across time and space, in each case reflecting the role of a politically energised middle class.
image courtesy of India TV News
Francis Fukuyama, writing in the Wall Street Journal, contends that protest movements around the world share a common theme: the emergence of what he dubs "a new global middle class". Fukuyama argues that "political protest has been led not by the poor but by young people with higher-than-average levels of education and income. They are technology-savvy and use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to broadcast information and organise demonstrations. Even when they live in countries that hold regular democratic elections, they feel alienated from the ruling political elite".
