Few people in their right mind would find any good in a $ 31 billion loss . In India ’ s case , it may just be the best thing that has happened in a very long time . Let ’ s flash forward 20 years to what school kids will learn about recent events . Sure , they may hear about Anna Hazare , the anti - corruption activist whose hunger strike shamed a government . More than anything , they may learn than Hazare was a symbol of the national sense of disgust over an opaque phone - license deal that squandered $ 31 billion . While that ’ s a big figure anywhere , it ’ s appalling in a nation in which 76 percent of its 1 . 2 billion people live on less than $ 2 a day . As public anger soars , history will probably record this loss as the proverbial last straw . Walking the streets of India ’ s cities , I can ’ t help but feel the biggest democracy is seeing its own Tea Party movement . Only unlike America ’ s , which is fiscally conservative and libertarian in nature , India ’ s is about the government doing more ― ending the stifling bureaucracy and offering better services . This could just be the Indian turning point for which investors have waited . “ I think a genie has been let out in India that won ’ t get back into the bottle , ” said Jesse Lentchner , Hong Kong - based Asia Pacific chief executive officer for BTIG LLC , a broker dealer . “ It all started in 1991 , and what we ’ re seeing now suggests reform is accelerating . ” Now is also an apt time to look back two decades . It was then that Manmohan Singh brought free - market reforms to India as finance minister . He scrapped red tape and removed the state - enforced restraints on various industries , paving the way for today ’ s 7 . 7 percent growth . Yet as prime minister since 2004 , he and his government have dragged their feet on attacking the rampant corruption that leads to too many Indians being mired in poverty . There is a sense that his failure to use the rapid growth of the mid - 2000 s to upgrade the economy was a huge missed opportunity . Last year ’ s humiliating Commonwealth Games in New Delhi should have ended the complacency . The international media were aghast at shoddy construction , work delays , claims of tainted swimming - pool water that some athletes say caused “ Delhi belly , ” a dengue - fever outbreak and 100 - roll packs of toilet paper going for $ 80 . The phone - permit sale predates the Commonwealth Games , though a steady diet of disclosures emerged in recent months . In November , Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja resigned amid allegations that a 2008 auction of phone licenses was rigged and cost the state tens of billions of dollars . The audacity of the alleged fraud , the dollar amount and the government ’ s tepid response outraged the nation . With each passing month of inaction by Singh and the president of his Indian National Congress party , Sonia Gandhi , public ire grew . Things began reaching a fever pitch in June , when police used teargas and batons to break up an anti - graft protest in New Delhi and evict yoga guru Swami Ramdev , who had joined the movement . Hazare ’ s hunger strike got more attention , partly because of the government ’ s ham - handed response . Arresting Hazare was just plain nutty . So was Singh , once a highly respected development economist , in attacking anti - graft protests as a danger to India ’ s democracy . Singh showed that he had missed the point completely . The whole reason for the public anger is that India ’ s democracy is failing the masses . The parallels between the Indian and U . S . Tea parties reflect public anger at elites , rather than the substance of their grievances . Most Indians don ’ t want the government out of their lives ― they want it to do better by them . Indians are less antagonistic toward public spending than their American counterparts and instead demand that it benefit the broader economy . As in the U . S . , India ’ s version of the Tea Party seemed to come out of nowhere to alter the political landscape in sudden and unpredictable ways . For too many years , politicians pooh - poohed the need to clean up India . In 2010 , the nation ranked 87 out of 178 countries in Transparency International ’ s Corruption Perceptions Index , tied with Albania and Liberia . India needs change , and the grass - roots fury coursing through New Delhi and Mumbai shouldn ’ t be downplayed . It ’ s real , it ’ s raw and it ’ s set to explode anew if politicians renege on their pledge to tackle graft . On Aug . 27 , as both houses of Parliament passed a resolution to do just that , one could sense the electricity in the air . “ We ’ re seeing history in the making here , ” Adi Godrej , the billionaire chairman of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd . , told me in Mumbai . “ Whatever happens from here , our economy will be better off for it . ” Added Krishnamurthi Venkataramanan , head of engineering and constructions projects at Larsen & Toubro Ltd . in Mumbai : “ Indians have had enough , and these protests mean the government can no longer ignore corruption . ” Observers are free to quibble with the details . Some worry about creating a massive new bureaucracy that merely centralizes corruption . Others claim it ’ s better to enforce graft laws already on the books . There ’ s also concern that this is all window dressing . Once the crowds disperse , nothing will change in Asia ’ s third - biggest economy . They are missing the point . Indians are fed up with how prosperity is eluding so many of them . They are disheartened to see China racing ahead while they walk past shantytowns and child beggars every day . And now India ’ s brand of Tea Party movement has had a taste of success . If you think this genie is going back in the bottle , you ’ re dreaming . By William Pesek William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist . The opinions expressed are his own . ― Ed . ( Bloomberg )