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AMAR SINGH The Network NetaFrom an errand boy, the SP leader has grown into a master strategist. By Sumit Mitra Some big events are caused by minor incidents. In April, after pulling down the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi could well have tasted the power of the prime ministerial office. The fact that she couldn't make it was caused by a minor lapse on the part of her secretariat. Those manning it had failed to see the importance of a certain appointment seeker. The man, Amar Singh, the 43-year-old general secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP), looks like any other soldier of political fortune. The capital is crammed with them. Moreover, Sonia, a strong believer in dealing with a group through a single person, perhaps thought that political matters concerning the sp were better left with the CPI(M)'s Harkishan Singh Surjeet who had, since August last year, been talking to her regularly on behalf of all "secular" parties interested in overthrowing Vajpayee.
He didn't. On the other hand, the deputy of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, blinded by rage at Sonia, acted with the determination of a Rajput. Earlier, following Surjeet's persuasion, Mulayam had almost agreed on a coalition government under Sonia. But the revolt of Singh made Mulayam change his stance. When Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jayalalitha went to meet Sonia as emissaries of the anti-BJP parties to make a final request to her to lead a coalition, it was apparent that the move didn't have Mulayam's support. Singh was keeping his fingers crossed. When Sonia turned down the offer -- "no third front, fourth front" -- Singh greeted the news with a home-spun doggerel. "Main banoongi rani, tum bhario paani (I will be the queen and you folks fetch the water)." In the campaigning weeks, Singh barnstormed Uttar Pradesh, the SP's citadel, with 150 public meetings, never passing up an opportunity to ridicule the Congress, particularly its president, calling her "a reader, not a leader". Many believed that Singh was digging the SP's grave by alienating the Congress and thus dividing the anti-BJP vote in Uttar Pradesh. They were wrong: the SP increased its tally in the state from 20 in 1998 to 26 and the BJP lost nearly half its seats. Of course, the Congress too benefited from the BJP's collapse, raising its score from nil to a respectable 10. But Singh says it is not so much due to the Congress' "local" support as the "vocal" hype in the media. "The Congress is living in a world of illusion regarding its strength." That may be Singh's usual bluster, with which television viewers are now familiar. There isn't a single talking opportunity on the TV channels that Singh has missed. He is enjoying his new status as the man who scuttled Sonia's move to capture power. But he has other peaks to scale. Like turning the SP into a large and well-knit instrument which will be the kingmaker of the future in India's fragmented politics. And, of course, he wants Mulayam to be the king. "The day is not very far when Mulayamji will hold the key to power. It may happen in this Lok Sabha." Under Singh's influence, the SP has begun reaching out of its caste and communal ghettoes. In the recent polls, it fielded as many as 14 Rajput candidates, four of whom have been elected. MP Sarvraj Singh says that Amar Singh is the party's chief strategist, "like what L.K. Advani is to the NDA". The master strategist of the SP was, till as late as 1996, a hard-core Congressman who began his political life in Calcutta as a secretary of the Burrabazar District Congress Committee. This lad of a lower middle-class Rajput family did not stop at the chawls of Burrabazar. From the Hindi-medium school where he studied, in one leap he went to St Xavier's College, read English under P. Lal, the poet and professor, and spent sleepless nights familiarising himself with the "elegant" turns of phrase of The Statesman. In Calcutta he struck a chance acquaintance with Vir Bahadur Singh, who, after becoming the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, put him in touch with the financial institutions that offered loans to "first generation entrepreneurs" at 1 per cent interest. That spawned Amar Singh, the "bijnesman" with a factory that makes ethyl acetate. Later came the help of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda in setting up a small 11 MW hydel power plant in Karnataka, which has recently gone on stream. All this left him independently wealthy, which is a crucial advantage for a career in public life. He was nominated to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) by Madhavrao Scindia. That was repaying an old debt. In the '80s, Singh helped Scindia defeat Jagmohan Dalmiya in the Board of Control for Cricket in India election in Calcutta by one vote. Connections breed connections. He was soon to become a director of The Hindustan Times, of Sahara India and several other companies. An introduction to Jaya Bachchan, as a co-member of the Central Board of Film Certification, started a lasting relationship with Amitabh Bachchan who lobbied for him with Rajiv Gandhi. He is mamaji to the Bachhan children. When the late Vir Bahadur Singh was in the saddle in Lucknow, Singh developed a rapport with leader of the opposition Mulayam. Later in life, Mulayam inducted him into the SP and got him elected to the Rajya Sabha. Singh has shed his Armani jacket under Mulayam's influence but he still sports the gold Rolex watch. From a small-time politician to a career in making deals, and now as a super-strategist, tele-sermoniser and kingmaker, Singh's progress has been spectacular. But crucial to his power is his 360-degree networking ability, acquired by painstakingly nurturing contacts and acquaintances. Such skills would have had few takers in the past era of political monoliths, with leadership decided by birth. But in the age of coalitions, Singh is the quintessential politician. |
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So nobody from 10 Janpath got back to Singh for a
few days. When someone finally called him, the condition set for the appointment was
galling. Singh was told to write a note stating what exactly he was going to discuss. The
safari-clad secretary at Sonia's office, used to being tough with the party's
appointment-seeking toadies, thought this short-necked, kurta-clad
Congressman-turned-Samajwadi would fall in line.