Has there been an appreciable change in the attitude and behaviour of the Indian consumer in recent years? Has the Indian consumer learnt to use weapons such as protests and boycotts to send a message across that she or he cannot be taken for granted? Have Indian consumers learnt the art of lobbying, experienced the strength of collective bargaining?

Certain recent consumer behaviour makes me feel quite optimistic about the changing attitude of the Indian consumer.

Remember the year the onion prices in Delhi hit the roof? That was the time several consumer groups gave a call for boycott of onions. Stop buying onions and the prices will automatically fall, they said. No one listened. The queues in front of Super Bazar vans, which were selling onions, only lengthened.

Before that, following the Bhopal gas tragedy, environment groups gave a call for boycott of Union Carbide products. This, they said, would force the company to compensate the victims adequately and quickly. Obviously, there was no reaction.

But today, there seems to be a discernible and even a dramatic shift in consumer behaviour. When it came to the introduction of the conditional access system, urban consumers rose in protest. So strong was their opposition to it, that consumer groups were forced to come together on the issue. And for once, the government had to listen to the consumers.

Then came the cola controversy, wherein Indian consumers reacted like the consumers in North America or Europe. Schools in different parts of the country banned these drinks, several restaurants and cafeteria stopped serving them in deference to the views of their clients.

College students who drank gallons of Pepsi or Coke said they had stopped drinking it. And these people were not Swadeshi Jagran Manch activists or MNC bashers. They were people who were hooked on to their daily dose of colas.

Does it mean that Indian consumers — at least the urban middle-class — have started taking issues concerning their health and safety more seriously? Or was it just a knee jerk reaction spurred by media reports? Have we as consumers become mature enough to use boycott as a weapon to show our strength? Of course the television is a powerful medium and can really bring about that kind of a reaction. But I would like to believe that for the first time, Indian consumers did flex their muscles, be it CAS or cola and the message that went out was that consumers can no longer be taken for granted.

Again the elections to the four state assemblies showed a highly positive and welcome trend. The elections were fought on issues that directly affected consumers, such as the quality of public utility services and infrastructure development, showing that Indian consumers were finally asserting their rights as voters. I do hope that all this signifies the emergence of a new consumer.