 "Kamal Nath")
It was 2012. The debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retailing was at its height. As parliamentary affairs minister, it was the job of Chhindwara MP Kamal Nath to ensure the motion to open FDI was passed. When it was cleared, Nath just could not contain his joy. He tried hard to look modest but failed miserably, and then, swaggered out of the House in the manner of a pop star, as his colleagues slapped his back and sought to shake his hand.
A reporter asked him what time he wakes up in the morning. His answer was, "Ask me what time I go to sleep."
The National Democratic Alliance should have talked to Nath before it ventured into changing the land acquisition law - Nath wore down telephone lines and burnt rubber, as he visited personally, one by one, all those he thought could be naysayers to persuade them to vote for the motion. When asked how the party had won over Mayawati, Congress leader and principal troubleshooter Ahmad Patel said, "Ask Kamal Nath."
For Nath, who had also been commerce and urban development minister in Congress-led governments, the sun rises and sets with his constituency, Chhindwara, which he is now representing for a 10th term in the Lok Sabha. He takes such good care of it that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calls it a Union Territory in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Those who have seen him during the Emergency remember him as an unlovely sidekick of Sanjay Gandhi. But, Nath has grown not only in experience but in stature. Rahul Gandhi referred to him by name at the Surajkund Chintan Shivir as the man who had complete grip over his constituency and suggested his qualities were worth emulating.
What Nath has, however, been unable to put behind him is his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which surfaced again when as a national general secretary, he was given charge of Punjab and Haryana. According to activists, Nath was in Delhi's Rakabganj Gurdwara, egging on rioters to attack Sikhs.
He says the Nanavati commission which investigated the anti-Sikh riots had absolved him. "It is nothing but a political ploy to divert from the real issues. There was an adjournment motion on which the Akalis spoke, L K Advani of BJP spoke. No one pointed fingers at me," he insists. Yet, it is also true that his former Cabinet colleague M S Gill roiled the waters when he wrote a letter to the Congress leadership alleging that his appointment was rubbing salt in the wounds of Sikhs.
It took Nath three days to ask the party leadership to relieve him of his charge of Punjab. For a party that has already apologised publicly for the riots, this is an embarrassing reminder that an apology can be offered but forgiveness cannot be taken for granted.
The chief Congress honcho in Punjab, Amarinder Singh has said it doesn't matter whether Kamal Nath is in charge of the Congress or not. For Nath, too, giving up charge of Punjab doesn't really matter: As long as he has Chhindwara, no one can question his politics.
