The rapid GDP growth rate of the country, its new found "prestige" in the international arena, and the globalisation of its elite had created an impression that the Left position was wrong, a single incident, of four senior central ministers kow-towing most abjectly to a "Baba" who threatened to go on a fast-unto-death against black money, should have dispelled it. The incident did not just underscore our lingering pre-modernity; it expressed something infinitely more disturbing, namely that neo-liberal India, far from countering pre-modernity, is actually strengthening it. We have seen a revival of khap panchayats, and now we have a "Baba" demanding Constitutional amendments of his personal choice under the Damocles sword of a fast-unto-death; and the government of the day, which proudly proclaims our growth performance, rushes in to appease such a Baba.