WHERE ARE YOU, INDIAN GORBACHEV ?

“Go easy on the rhetoric” – thus spake a fellow blogger. Well, I shall try my best to heed his advice as I write further. But, the sensitivity of the issue is such a constant provocation……anyway. Sometime from now, I shall be writing an exam in which I will have to answer questions on Russian foreign policy. Don’t know how I will fare in the exam. But, as I sit with yet another of those drab and repetitive objects – the ‘xeroxes’- in the dead of the night…..rolling over to the life of the morning, I try to entertain myself by thinking up an odd comparison. This is between our incumbent ‘rockstar’ HRD minister – Arjun Singh and a ‘hep’ Soviet personality – Leonid Brezhnev.

How can this come about? Well, both neared/are nearing the sunset of their lives when they came to occupy their respective designations. Both needed/need help when having to reach out for the microphone or having to shift from one chair to another (no offence to old age). And, both see/saw their respective countries in the same way as they did in their childhood. While one wanted to prop up a great ideology by sending KGB officers in every corner of the globe, another wishes to prop up the downtrodden of his country by giving them quota-seats gift wrapped (even though the recipients might have no idea as to how they shall open their gifts). The history of mankind never ceases to witness supreme benevolence!

No, this is not rhetoric. This is not Rang De Basanti-style politician bashing or any anti-Arjun blog, as my fellow blogger would sarcastically put it. This is just an attempt to grope in the dark. When Brezhnev and his comrades had their fill of ‘Sovietising’ the world, someone called Gorbachev set about undoing their actions. Will I be wrong in asking for an Indian Gorbachev now? Will I be asking for the moon? Or, is it time for me to stop shouting from the rooftop? Maybe it is…..as time on writing against reservation is really running out……as a “Reserved Generation” is all set to become a reality…….as another outraged friend’s text message calls the government names……..yes, words really don’t break bones, as you said, Mr. Singh (even though the lathi-wielding police cares two hoots about breaking the protesters’ bones)…..yes, I am laughing at my own silly little joke. But, the question keeps lingering within me – ‘Where are you, Indian Gorbachev?” “When will you come……to make us a little bit wise?”