Will we never move forward???

The International Herald Tribune carried an article titled Why Indians fight modernization. It talks about the anachronistic socialist mindset behind the opposition to projects like Reliance's modern retail and the now stalled 123 nuclear agreement. In a form of explanation to this weird behavior the author has this to say

Many Indians - and not just in Marxist-ruled West Bengal - see entrepreneurs as the modern incarnations of the zamindars - landowners and rent collectors who exploited the peasantry in British times. Many regard multinational corporations as new versions of the British East India Company, which came to India to trade and stayed to rule. That situation leaves the state as the small man's only protector.

I believe that the cause lies else where. With the fall of the soviet union and the destruction of the communist block we saw leadership change all over the Eastern block...we also saw leadership change in China and countries like Britain and Germany where a new crop of young leaders like Jiang and Blair took over the reigns and then ushered in an era of reforms and progress.

However all this while India was caught in a partial time wrap where external factors forced us half heartedly into the path of Globalization and Modernization, while we were still stuck with the old guard at the top be it Vajpayee or Karat or Manmohan...It is this dichotomy of old leadership and new ideas that is holding us back...Will we have to wait for the current crop to die before we can move forward? This report makes me feel cynical.