There is a near universal belief that the anger over Jessica Lall’s injustice will soon dissipate and that we will soon revert to “business as usual”. There are solid reasons for this cynical pessimism – the Indian judicial landscape is littered with backlogs, acquittals, and excuses. So why should this time be any different? It is, and I would like to document why. This time it is different due to two major reasons, due to not one but two tipping points. First, the size of the middle class has crossed a major threshold level. Second, the Jessica Lal murder, and the acquittal, was so extreme that it has pushed the middle class to shout out aloud “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore”.

What is this middle class and why is it so important? There is first a relative definition of the middle class (MC). For example, the MC can be defined as the not poor (the bottom fifth of the population) and the not rich (the top fifth). With this definition, the MC will always be with us, just as the rich and the poor. What is more meaningful is an absolute definition of the middle class, just as there is an absolute definition of the poor (approximately Rs. 425 per capita per month in 2005). One possible definition of the middle class is an income level which defines one as not-poor in the developed, Western world**. This level is 7.2 times the Indian poverty line, or approximately Rs. 1.8 lacs per year for a family of five.

Just 25 years ago, only 3.5 percent of the Indian population could be classified as "middle class". Thus, then, the very rich in India were "internationally middle class". At the time of the initiation of economic reforms in 1991, this fraction touched double digits. A decade later (Jessica Lal's murder) this population had doubled to 20 percent; in the last six years, this fraction has jumped by 13 percentage points to 33 percent today. It is this non-linear increase that is synonymous with the set of changes occurring in India today.

The middle class, by definition, is neither rich nor poor. It is not feudal or elitist in its origins. It did not inherit its wealth, either via land or industry. And while it may have been poor at one time, that time is most likely at least a generation or two away. The middle class in all probability is there because it made money the old-fashioned way - by earning it. (This rules out most of the politicians from the middle class and all the corrupt people, whether in or out of the judiciary, or army, or bureaucracy). The MC has been able to earn its status because it invested in education, because it worked hard. The MC benefits from a merit oriented society, a class that believes in introduction, and perpetuation, of policies that allow it (and others) to become rich. The American dream if you will; its chosen instruments are three - education, education, and more education.

Given this background, it is not a surprise that the middle class does not look too kindly towards the noveau riche who are there because they earned money the new fashioned Al Capone way. The MC also, purely from a selfish point of view, is interested in policies that reward merit i.e. capitalism, the market. This is a major reason why the MC ceases to be socialistic or communist as soon as it acquires wealth - hence, the refrain that at the age of 40, if you have any mind, you are a capitalist.

The size of the middle class in India is today beyond a critical mass. It is likely that the intelligent left has also recognized this reality - hence, the movement in both the Communist states of Kerala and West Bengal towards "enlightened" socialism i.e. the market. This recognition also seems to have dawned on the formerly leftist United Progressive Alliance; lately it has, in rapid-fire fashion, articulated middle class dreams: airport privatization, good relations with the US (the nuclear treaty), the vote against Iran (in the national and MC interest), good jobs (setting up of Special Economic Zones), capital account convertibility for Indians and not just the foreigners, and aspirations, and plans, for making India a regional financial center. The feudal Left has been convincingly left behind.

If the middle class is so good, and so potent, then why has it been in slumber for so long? Actually, it has been flexing its muscles, slowly and perceptibly. Recall that just 10 years ago, pollution in Delhi was at extreme levels. The elite can ignore slums because they do not live close to them; they can ignore power cuts because they have their own generators; they can purchase water if it is not available; they can ignore teacher absenteeism in public schools because their kids go to private schools; and they can ignore the rot in public services because they don't need them. On the side, the elite makes a lot of money through acting in the name of the poor e.g. the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. But the elite cannot escape pollution - their daughters face it every day, their children get hurt, they get hurt. Hence, it only took a little push from the middle class to overturn all opposition to CNG. Suddenly, the clogged courts did not matter, the rotting judicial system did not matter, and a CNG law is passed - and voila, reduced pollution in the elite quarters of Delhi, and in middle class neighborhoods.

In the BMW and Salman Khan cases, the middle class could afford to look away - it, after all, did not sleep on pavements. But both Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal could be a sister or a brother, a wife or a husband, of anybody in the middle class. It could be you - in all probability, it is you. The middle class loves the market for its reward to merit, and appreciates law and order to protect its hard-earned gains. It cannot, will not, allow gross injustices to occur, especially when such injustice affects it directly. The Middle Class will ensure that justice will be done, and will continue to be done. The dreams will begin to come true now that power has shifted away from the elite to the midd