Where is the alternative?

"The vast majority of India's urban middle class appears to have abandoned the opportunities of citizenship. They are willing to sacrifice liberty, even dignity, for some mercy from the mai-baap sarkar (paternal government)," wrote Sagarika Ghose. "India's timid middle class is in sharp contrast with other countries." "Actually we Indians have been lulled into taking democracy for granted with successive good-old-boy prime ministers from PV Narasimha Rao to AB Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh running broad tolerant-minded administrations." India's middle class is actually poor. Per capita income for financial year 2020-21 in Bangladesh was $2,227, whereas India's per capita income reached $1,947.417, The New Indian Express. According to economists Sandhya Krishnan and Neeraj Hatekar India has 600 million middle class, with the lower middle living on $2-$4 per person per day and an upper middle living on $6-$10 per person per day, BBC.  Prof Anirudh Krishna "reckons that if you set the lower income threshold at $10 per person a day, then less than 2% actually have that status". "Indians, across religions, are not just believers but also conservative in their attitude towards religion," according to a survey by the Pew Research Centre, Hindustan Times (HT). "The Indian nation suffered a partition on religious lines at birth, yet adopted a secular form of state." Hindus have felt left out by the "good-old-boy prime ministers". Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims used to be subsidised by the Indian state, wikipedia. The Delhi government pays a salary of Rs 18,000 to imams in Delhi's mosques and Rs 16,000 per month to helpers, Zee News, which prompted Union Minister Giriraj Singh to demand the same payment for Hindu priests, News18. In 2017, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appointed Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim the chairman of Tarakeshwar Development Board, News18. Tarakeshwar is a 288-year old Shiva temple revered by Hindus. "The BJP's political victory has come on the back of a massive consolidation of Hindu votes, and almost negligible representation of Muslims in the ruling party's support base or elected representatives. The Opposition, having realised the gravity of the political challenge, has tried many tricks to counter the BJP. The most common among them has been what is often described as the 'soft-Hindutva' approach," HT. "The spread of the BJP as an all India party has certainly affected the Hindu perceptions across the country. As a result, the BJP's version of Hindutva seems to be emerging as the dominant expression of Hindu nationalism," The Print. Yet, while using Hindus to win elections the BJP has done nothing to stop the loot of Hindu temples by politicians. "While state governments control over 4 lakh (400,000) out of  an estimated 9 lakh temples across the country, there is no such control over Muslim and Christian religious bodies. In this backdrop, there are demands to amend 'Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) Act 1951', which allows the state governments to take over temples and maintain complete control over them and their properties," Sunday Guardian. Hindus have been sliced according to caste. "With 27 ministers from OBC (other backward classses) castes, 12 from Scheduled Castes subgroupings, and eight from the Scheduled Tribes community, the majority in Modi's government now comes from traditionally marginalised groups," HT. "Take the Northeast. It says something about India's dismal past record that Kiren Rijiju has become the first leader from a state as sensitive as Arunachal Pradesh to enter the Union Cabinet. It speaks as poorly that no native of Tripura had ever been a part of the Union council of ministers, till Pratima Bhowmik joined as minister of state last week." "A passive middle class -- when citizens fail fellow citizens -- poses dangers for us all," thinks Ghose. The middle class is passive because it sees no alternative. Opposition politicians have to own up to past mistakes and give people honest alternatives to fight for. Just criticising is useless.