Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No actually, it is Amar Singh. And he's back. On Mulayam Singh Yadav's orders, earlier this week he was made general secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP), deputy to Shivpal Yadav, who is now party chief. Six years after he resigned from the SP, Singh has returned in a blaze of glory. And as before, he is once again fighting for the underdog. In this case, it is Shivpal Yadav, the rustic, unsophisticated chacha (uncle) of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav has plumped for the brother rather than the son ahead of the Assembly elections. And for Singh.
Singh has seen it all, the highs and the lows. His life flashed by him when he was on a ventilator in Dubai, in Singapore after his kidney transplant, in jail... his health is now fine, all court cases against him have been dropped but the driving need to stand up and fight for someone's rights, and rage - rage against the dying of the light - is unquenched.
Amitabh Bachchan once said about him, in an interview to journalist Deepak Chaurasia: "Had Amar Singh not been in my life, I would have been on the road, probably have ended up as a taxi driver". When Singh met Bachchan, his comeback film Mrityudaata had been an outstanding flop, the Income Tax Department was after him, his Mumbai house was close to being sold, and his company ABCL was imploding. The perception was that Bachchan was a better actor than he was a businessman. ABCL had attained the unsavoury reputation of a corporation better known for sharp practices than entrepreneurial initiative.
Singh stepped in for three reasons: it was a chance to play white knight; the business presented a challenge; and, well, it was association with a legend of Indian cinema, after all. He explained his curious friendship to a reporter at that time. It was a matter of principle, he said. When big names in Indian business got into trouble, the Establishment thought nothing of restructuring bank loans and pulling political strings to bail them out even if it was the Indian taxpayer who paid. "And for non-payment of Rs 4 crore, they got after Amitabh. I felt he didn't deserve this," he said. Hindustan Lever Limited, "a company that sells soap" was asked to restructure the business. It was uncomfortable with the glamour and glitz of showbusiness. Singh elbowed them out and advised. Soon after that, Bachchan paid his dues to Doordarshan and Canara Bank, a managerial reshuffle at ABCL saw its name being changed to AB Corp. And of course, Singh became a family friend of the Bachchans, going as far as to offer Jaya Bacchan a Rajya Sabha seat on behalf of the SP.
It turned out to be a dud investment. Jaya Bachchan ignored the SP's action of throwing Singh out of the party and opted for a second term in the Rajya Sabha (RS). During her first term as a member of Parliament, Singh made her battles his. When the issue of office of profit came up and Jaya Bachchan had to resign, Singh raked up the issue of Sonia Gandhi and the membership of the National Advisory Council. Gandhi had to resign as well. Abu Azmi of the SP threw stones at Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan's Mumbai home after the actor shared the stage with Raj Thackeray. But that made no difference to Jaya Bachchan's loyalty to the SP. Singh was relegated to being just a punctuation mark. Now, Jaya Bachchan has the RS seat till April 2018. Will Amar Singh stay in the SP till 2018? And will Jaya Bachchan keep her seat beyond then, if Singh is still around?
About Akhilesh Yadav, the less said the better. Singh acted as a bridge between father and son. The genesis of the much-touted free laptop scheme was laid when Singh was still in the SP. But in 2010 when he was thrown out of the party, the younger Yadav didn't say a word in Singh's defence. Recently, he charged "outsiders" with trying to fish in the SP's family disputes. Now, Singh is firmly ensconced in the SP family, although Akhilesh Yadav has vowed never to call him "uncle".
It is too early to predict how Singh's (re)entry will influence the course of events. Akhilesh Yadav will be bitter - but he has neither the chutzpah nor the brains of Singh. The internal dynamics of SP, the unquenched ambition of its leaders and factional politics are going make it the most interesting party to watch in the coming months.
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