When the shock of 26/11 took place, the first reactions were angry. A lot of Mumbai citizens expressed their dissatisfaction with the leaders and with the political system. Many resolved to change the system. Indeed I recall many agonised meetings at lunches and dinners where debates were held as to what was to be done. It looked for a while as if there was going to be a middle class renaissance in India’s politics.

Now we know better. Mumbai citizens showed their commitment by turning up in an even smaller percentage than last time around and about 15 per cent below the national average. Yes, there is a long weekend and many have gone away. There are many other excuses. The system will never improve. There is no real choice between the available candidates. Why bother?

When I was first invited to take part in the discussions last Christmas about starting a new politics, I could see the problems ahead. Middle class Indians have no patience and high expectations of what they can achieve. Each thought that all it would take to clean up politics was for him or her to ‘do something’. Enter politics. Run for Lok Sabha. Start a party. Just like that. I could not tell them that political activity is often boring and seems pointless. There are few political parties in India which function outside elections as regular meeting places. Middle class people think that their sheer intention to act is enough.

I joined the Labour Party in my local area in Islington 38 years ago. I began at the ward level and began to attend monthly meetings. We often had few political debates. Conversations were about local complaints from local authority housing tenants who came just to meet their councillor who would be at the meeting. Month after month I spent many evenings and learnt the way of taking active part in politics. The Labour Party has a structure of monthly meetings at ward level and then at constituency level where delegates come from wards. I canvassed at elections and went to interminable meetings where we discussed many issues on which there were major disagreements. Many weekends we went to the local markets to meet voters and talk about party policy, often getting abuse from the locals.

... contd.