The news about Amar Singh being sent to judicial custody till 19 September has been received with a sense of déjà vu by the capital’s power set.
Amar Singh’s case stands out even in this silly season of scams when powerful people – civil servants, corporate honchos and politicians – with considerable influence are being routinely dispatched to Tihar jail.
It’s partly to do with Singh’s persona and background.
For nearly a decade and a half Amar Singh has donned the role of a deal maker-cum-politician with a mix of rare panache and aplomb. Coming from a middle class family, Singh grew up in Kolkata and his initial calling cards in the Delhi jet set all had some Bengali connection. Fiercely loyal to his friends – and always expecting even more fierce loyalty in return—Singh combined his ready wit and street smart instinct to be on the right side of the high and mighty.
Singh combined his ready wit and street smart instinct to be on the right side of the high and mighty. Reuters
His arsenal was a strange combination of tricks and tools which included both sincerity and deceit in equal measure.
His rustic cunning, straightforward approach, earthy humor, plain speaking and ability to befriend and oblige the right kind of people when they were going through a rough patch (Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt), were all qualities which won him a lot of rich and powerful friends. He used his contacts to devastating affect and almost always delivered what he promised.
But the tide began to reverse with the UPA registering a shock victory in 2004 and the Samajwadi Party and Amar Singh finding themselves getting the cold shoulder by Sonia Gandhi despite having 35 MPs in their kitty. He could never really reconcile to the humiliation meted out to him by the Congress top brass when he landed up uninvited with CPM’s Harkishan Surjeet at the UPA’s victory bash at Mrs Gandhi’s residence in May 2004. An unwelcome guest, he was virtually forced to leave the party in which the contours of UPA 1 were first discussed.
Perhaps it was that feeling of being left out—and a desperate desire to make a comeback on the centre stage – which forced Amar Singh’s hand when the crucial confidence vote was taking place in 2008.
Manmohan Singh and UPA survived the trust vote but fortune still refused to smile on Singh and the Samajwadi Party. Singh’s subsequent parting of ways with Samajwadi Party and Mulaysam Singh, a chill in his personal equation with many of his celebrated friends, including the Bachchans, and recurring health problems in the last year and a half have all taken a toll on Amar Singh.
It can well be said that things cannot get more difficult for Amar Singh. He has been packed off to Tihar, in ill health and apparently with not many friends in the right places.
To make things even more messy some very powerful enemies are waiting to deliver that one final blow and settle settle old scores at a time when the wily Thakur seems truly down and out.
But don’t put it beyond the guile of Amar Singh to turn this adversity into an opportunity and maybe try and use it as a kind of a comeback vehicle both in mainstream politics and media headlines.
Amar Singh may still be holding some aces. There will be a lot of interest –even anxiety in some quarters—as Singh begins to give his side of the story in the cash-for-vote scandal. How and why did he get involved in this mess? Was he really trapped or was he acting as a self-appointed trouble shooter to secure future gains for himself and his party. Or was he really acting as a front person for somebody powerful in the governing UPA?
A number of interesting and saucy theories are doing the round in the capital’s power circuit; each more juicy than the other.
