And there lies the reason why India will forever be a shithole of a middling country that "could have been so great".
You either -
need the spending power of USA to buy the best brains
or
need to be a iron-fisted emotionless dictatorship with a laser-focused "plan".
we are neither and with an overload of dumbocracy run by illiterates.
You think USA started out with the highest spending power 250 years ago? That's a totally spurious take.
India's situation today is more like a result of seven decades of stagnancy. Our older generation is also responsible, not only the political parties.
There are so many backlog things needed to be sorted out first. From judicial reforms to utilisation of manpower. Needed more investment friendly laws & r&d, an unified tax system that we lacked before 2017.
If we had the pace we're having right now since the independence, India would've overwhelmed China a long ago. Rather we've created the worst socialist system that even the gore communists don't follow.
Democracy, communism these are political terms in today's political spectrum. China is as capitalist as the USA. Nobody is communist. Same goes for the Russia. India already has enough brain power. We never let them be used for the benefit of India. Chinese make way more percentage of expats & immigrants. Are they suffering from the brain deficiency? Never.
Indian people are more responsible for what we're today. We've shaped our system. Remember how we opposed NRC, farm laws, labour reforms, refused indigenisation in defence for some lobby money, kept supporting creepy politicians through their emotional blackmail, opposed digitisation, opposed GST, never focused on indigenisation in manufacturing, kept closing plants in the name of pseudo human rights, didn't even have 50% access to sanitation before 2016. Not more than a decade ago, not even 10% of Indians used to have bank accounts. We were so detached from the civilized world. We never asked questions. Heck we've even changed our own history to appease a particular community.
On the positive note, the awareness is growing among the common mass for the better good. Things are changing. Still a long way to go though. Dictatorship & democracy either has no correlation with the situation we're in today or ever will be. Dictatorship doesn't always lead to a better outcome.
People need to vote smartly & elect credible people who can make the change. That's all it needs.
See how BJP led states are progressing & see how Congress ruled states are drowning in debts, enforcing stupid laws & regulations. See the downhill charts of Banglore once. You will understand.
No laser focused plan will work out if people don't attest to it. We need more awareness at individual level, need a reality check & the basic understanding of things happening around so that the people stop electing subhuman level leaders.