This refers to A K Bhattacharya’s column “The middle-class myth” (New Delhi Diary, September 21). The author cites two examples in which he finds the middle-class anger unjustified — interest rates and petrol prices. With an economist-led government failing to deliver in terms of inflation and interest rates, I find the anger on these two counts justified. Even as the US mortgage rates recently reached their lowest level, India’s housing loan rates are going through the roof. The “middle-class” may be wrong in comparing the two, but petrol prices, too, are now among the highest in India.
If anything, Hazare’s movement has signalled one thing that will become prominent in the days to come — the influence of the middle class. Politicians have been listening to either the very rich or the very poor. The middle class never figured in their scheme of things.
Ankur Pathak, Mehsana, Gujarat
Readers should write to:
The Editor, Business Standard,
Nehru House,
4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi 110 002,
Fax: (011) 23720201;
letters@bsmail.in
All letters should have a postal address and telephone number