Potemkin Villagers

Does this picture strike you as odd? Imagine a bunch of moms from a poor neighborhood in Washington, DC, marching to the U.S. Federal Reserve, holding a computer-printed sign for the cameras that says, "The Federal Reserve must regulate payday lenders"---in Hindi. Sort of like that. Admittedly, English is the official secondary language of the country. But I don't expect I'll be able to use it when I visit villages on Friday.I'm told that this is a staple of Indian politics, these contrived protests. In the U.S., we have fake grassroots campaigns called astroturfing. Not that I'm in a position to doubt the sincerity of those appearing in the photo. And done right, regulation of microfinance by the national-level Reserve Bank of India would be a very good thing.The sign bears the acronyms of the All India Democratic Women's Association and the All India Agricultural Workers Union, both part of the Communist Party of India. I'll leave it to experts to determine whether this call for regulation of a private industry deviates from true Marxist-Leninist thought.