Swamy told me, correctly, that identity is not a trivial thing, that religious, caste or national identity matters to a vast section of Indians. But then, that was not the substance of my question. “Why" was my question. Why is it that a majority of the nation that lives in appalling conditions wastes its political energies on issues that hardly matter to their lives? Why don’t people agitate for air-conditioned transport and water and electricity and free schools more often than they do for esoteric things? Or, at least peacefully vote for these issues, as the people of Delhi have begun to do recently, since the advent of the Aam Aadmi Party?