Amar Singh should stick to his retirement plans

I remember having met Amar Singh first sometimes in 1993. That was at the Jay Vilas Palace in Gwallior. As a reporter with an English language paper in New Delhi, I was assigned to report on a public meeting that Madhavrao Scindia had organised then. The real purpose behind that meeting was to establish Scindia’s clout in the region and thus part of his efforts to stake his claim for the leadership of the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress party in the state, then, was ridden by several factions and Scindia led one of them like such others as V.C.Shukla, Arjun Singh, Motilal Vora, P.C.Sethi, and S.C.Shukla. There were such others as Ajit Jogi, Kamal Nath and Digvijai Singh who were younger than the veterans but trying to establish as leaders too. And the immediate context was the ensuing elections to the State assembly in Madhya Pradesh. Elections were held in November 1993, a few months after I happened to meet Amar Singh, and Digvijai Singh managed to beat the others to become Chief Minister soon.

Amar Singh, then, had not arrived as a political operator in Delhi. He was hanging around Madhavrao Scindia and was also an advisor to the Birlas. His contact point then was Shobhana Bharthia, a member of the Birla clan and the person who controlled the Hindustan Times, an English language newspaper owned by the family. Shobhana was an intimate friend of Madhavrao Scindia and that was reason enough for Amar Singh to hang around the maharaja. Amar Singh was also a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at that time. He belonged to the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee at that time.

I do remember my first encounter with Amar Singh at the Jay Vilas Palace. He did make it a point to tell me that he was with my Associate Editor for dinner the evening before. My first reaction was so what! But then, the purpose behind his statement was not lost. It did remain in my mind that here was an important person who had his contacts where it mattered. Let me add that I did not work for the Hindustan Times. I worked for another paper with its headquarters located in Chennai (Madras then). But then, I knew what it means to deal with a politician who knew my boss so well to have a meal with her!

In a few months from then, I was in Mumbai, once again to report on the National Executive meet of the Samajwadi Party. The party had, by that time, come to power in Uttar Pradesh and its leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, was showing signs of emerging into a key player in the nation’s politics as well. I had my contacts in the party and among them was Raghu Thakur, its then general secretary and a socialist by nature and conviction. Mulayam Singh had use for him because he also happened to be a Rajput by caste. Even in the post Mandal political discourse, Mulayam Singh perceived a Yadav-Rajput social alliance as not only necessary but also possible.

But then, Raghu was critical of the manner in which Mulayam Singh was promoting some of the industrialists. Among those who gained from Mulayam’s un-socialist ways was Sanjay Dalmia. Mulayam, as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh had transferred a public Sector cement corporation – Dalla Cements – to Sanjay Dalmis. And that he said was in return to the favours that Sanjay extended to him before the elections. Mulayam was using Sanjay’s small plane to traverse across Uttar Pradesh between 1991, when he formed his own party, and November 1993 when he won the assembly elections.

Mulayam did not want to take Raghu’s socialistic ways too far. And within a couple of days after the Mumbai national executive, Raghu Thakur was expelled from the party. Everyone thought that Sanjay Dalmia would take the place. And so did I. But then, Amar Singh became the Samajwadi Party’s general secretary. None bothered to recall that Singh was in the AICC! Well. Amar Singh seemed to realise then that the Congress was a lost case in Uttar Pradesh. And it made sense for him, with his intimate links with industrial houses as well as sections in the underworld, to team up with a leader who showed promise. Mulayam Singh was flexible too. He was willing to pull all the stops to reach higher levels and Amar Singh was a perfect conduit to that.

It was at that stage that I began looking into Amar Singh’s past. Hailing from a lower-middle class family in Azamgarh, Amar Singh went to study in Calcutta. He did not excel as a student anywhere but that is not important for our concern. He returned home and located himself in Gorakhpur from where he also operated as an aide to Congress politician from the region, Vir Bahadur Singh. This Singh began his political life as PWD Minister in UP in the late seventies and made lots of money making full use of the nexus that such ministers have with civil and road contractors. Vir Bahadur Singh, thus managed to become Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1985; and made more money. Amar Singh remained his aide until he was alive and on Singh’s death, re-located himself to Calcutta.

V.B.Singh’s son, Sant Bux Singh, however, was left a poor man with just the household goods and a few property that were in the dead man’s name. Singh’s ill-gotten wealth was however not to be enjoyed by Sant Bux. A mere coincidence, if that it, Amar Singh commanded a lot of wealth from this time. He soon moved into Delhi, landed up in the Birla establishment as political advisor and the rest is recorded history. And by the time he arrived at Mulayam Singh’s estate (that is a better way to describe the Samajwadi Party), he had his own wealth with which he could bail out Amithabh Bachan, enslist Jaya Bachan into the fold and command Jaya Pradha to join the Samajwadi Party.

Amar Singh was also resourceful to have Anil Dhirubhai Ambani invest in Uttar Pradesh. The Sahara group, with its finger in the media, airlines and many other dubious business shifted its headquarters to Lucknow and Mulayam even allowed Subroto Roy to build his own castle outside the city. It is held, in popular perception, that the Sahara group is also a holder of wealth that actually belongs to a wanted underworld don, now living in Karachi but with huge business interests and investment in Dubai. This don is also known to visit Sharjah to watch day-night cricket matches there. Well. It does it ring a bell that Amar Singh’s announcement that he would no longer carry the burden of running the Samajwadi Party was made from Dubai?

Here are now a few options before Amar Singh.
1. To join the Congress and this could mean that the battle between the Ambani brothers, within and outside the court halls, that is causing a drain of their wealth and helping some others in the corporate world is amicably settled. The fact is that while Anil Ambani is Amar Singh’s man (or is it the other way?). Mukesh Ambani has his own men in the Congress including a very senior member of the Union cabinet. And a settlement is possible in the event Amar Singh joins the Congress and thus bring the two warring brothers to settle their fight, Recall that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had urged (by way of a public statement) that the brothers stop quarrelling ``in the interest of the nation’’.(The Hindu, August 22, 2009). This will mean that Amar Singh can claim that he left his interests in the Samajwadi Party ``in the interest of the nation’’.

2. To join the BSP, if Mayawati is willing to play ball and ensure that the corporate houses spend a lot of money in building parks with Ambedkar’s statues and Mayawati’s as well. Singh himself can spend some of his ill-gotten wealth in such activities. This will also save Mayawati from being hauled up in the courts for spending public money in her pet projects. And where corporate houses are engaged in this ``social’’ agenda, it will also ensure positive comments from the media. The pink papers will even decide to vest awards for Mayawati in this event!

3. To join the BJP, shift to Gujarat. Amar Singh can also fit into the vacuum created in the BJP due to the untimely death of Pramod Mahajan. Am I reading too much into a news, that appeared in the papers the same day as that of Amar Singh’s decision to unburden himself of the Samajwadi tag, that Amitabh Bachan is now keen on becoming the brand ambassador for Narendra Modi’s Gujarat; and that Modi too has lost not time to enlist video campaigns with Amitabh telling that Gujarat is a great place. Recall the videos that were produced in 2007, with money from the State Government when Mulayam was the Chief Minister and Amar Singh the chairman of the UP State Industrial Development Corporation! This would also mean that Gujarat can gather investment from Amar Singh himself, the underworld don who lives in Karachi and many others!

4. Amar Singh can also talk to such others like Prakash Karat and A.B.Bardhan. I do recall that this man from Azamgarh used to address Karat as his Comrade! He can even fly into Kerala from Dubai and revive the Smart City project and several other investment ideas so that Kerala is turned into another Uttar Pradesh! He can also help Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ``develop'' West Bengal into an industrial hun on the lines of Gujarat!

5. He can also talk with Mamta Banerjee, J.Jayalalitha, M.Karunandidhi, N.Chandrababu Naidu, Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Chandrasekara Rao, Shibhu Soren or N.D.Tiwari and chart another political path to himself in collaboration with any one of them. He could even emerge as a consensus of a Third Front in the event!

6. Amar Singh can also stick to his overt statement that he would now live his life for himself, his wife and his two daughters; in that event, he can live in one of the villas in Palm Jumeirah in Dubai or even buy himself a flat (if he has not done that yet) in Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building. For all that he has done to our democracy, this man deserves a life in retirement and far away from Azamgarh, where he began.

If only I have the powers to determine what this man should do, I will recommend the last option so that Indian Democracy will be saved from further distortion. It does not mean that someone else like Amar Singh will not arrive and flourish in this system but then, it will be one evil mind less!