Being Amar Singh: SP mouthpiece

In Uttar Pradesh, the heat and dust generated by battle-ready politicians will cloud the people's lives for all of next month. Everyday, a rally is held and visitors literally fall from the sky. Today it’s the turn of Amar Singh, the ruling Samajwadi Party’s General Secretary and friends of the rich and the famous. The overwhelmingly male Thakur audience is the last one on his list for the day.

Anuradha SenGupta: When I see you in functions in Mumbai, when I see you in Delhi, it seems like this world is very far away, isn’t it? This birth, caste-based identity – that is another world you belong to and this is another world – do you feel comfortable in this world?

Amar Singh: I was born and brought up in Calcutta, where the difference is more ideological – Left or Right. Or at the most, it is football based – you are a Mohun Bagan supporter or East Bengal supporter. And inter-caste marriages used to be – long time back – there. Initially when I came and started politics over here, all of a sudden I realised the identity of my caste and community. The name ‘Thakur’ was given to me – this adjective is not self-acquired. If they are coming forward, mainly on the basis of you belonging to one community or caste, you possibly can’t shun them out – at the most you have to educate them.

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you feel more of a insider when are you here, you know, in a small town, dust, heat…?

Amar Singh: I am misunderstood because nobody cares to come and cover these meetings, where I spend most of my time. If once I will be seen with my elder brother Mr Bachchan or my would be daughter-in-law Aishwarya, that will hit the headline of the national newspapers.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: You must admit the fact that you enjoy being seen with your older brother and your future daughter-in-law.

Amar Singh: No, no, I would have enjoyed in any case. It is my good luck that my daughter-in-law is Aishwarya, it is my good luck that my elder brother seems to be Mr Bachchan. I can’t fight with my destiny – if I am born with it, I live with it. I am not embarrassed or ashamed about it, but I am talking about…

Anuradha SenGupta: But you know the saying that ‘as you will, so is your destiny’.

Amar Singh: This things just happen in life, so…

Anuradha SenGupta: But don’t get defensive about it. I am not criticising the fact that you are close to them.

Amar Singh: No, no, I am not defensive at all. I am proud to be there.

Anuradha SenGupta: I am saying, how do you relate to two very different worlds?

Amar Singh: Nothing, they are very simple people. Where do you see me with other socialites, where do you see me in other big parties – I have left it long time back.

Anuradha SenGupta: In this month, given the UP elections and we hear Abhishek and Aishwarya’s wedding, you must be a very stressed out man. Is in deed – the kind of responsibility that is on you?

Amar Singh: No, that is a matter of joy, it is a very small wedding and a very intimate affair. And I have got nothing to do.

Anuradha SenGupta: You don’t have to organise it or plan it?

Amar Singh: No, no I don’t have to. Because there is no big show, no big tamasha - it’s going to be a very small and quite affair. This problem is not only with me, I must share this problem with Jayaji also. She is a member of the party and she is actively involved and is campaigning. And none of us are apologetic about our dual responsibility.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: I have noticed that you don’t talk so much about what your government have done in its past tenure, you focus instead on the competition, you focus instead on how the voters would be impacted if your opposition parties managed to come to power. Why did you not talk about the achievements? Do you feel that there are not so many achievements to talk about?

Amar Singh: No, I don’t feel that. Before I came here, I came to know that villagers of 50 villages, predominantly of Thakur community, they have already applauded the role of SP as far as improvement is concerned. So, when BSP supremo is saying that she wants power to arrest me and Mulayam Singh, that needs to be addressed. It may sound good to say that ideology and development and improvement alone should fetch you vote – if that is the criteria, then nobody can defeat us. We have done a lot. But besides that, because of lack of education, ignorance, another factor that is very important is that of different communities, they get confused. For instance the total strength of BSP is not development or work, they all know this, in ticket distribution, there is lot of disturbance and corruption and everyone knows that. But the community of BSP supremo is solidly intact behind her only on the basis of that she is our lady and she has to be backed in any cost. This is the fact of the life.

Anuradha SenGupta: To a little bid of rewind, lots of people today know you as a spokesperson and General Secretary of the SP. But you started the political career with the Congress party, isn't it?

Amar Singh: Yes.

Anuradha SenGupta: And like lots of people you left it. What happened? Why is that?

Amar Singh: I have not left anybody. I worked very closely with Pranab Mukherjee, when he was PCC chief. I worked very closely with Subrata Mukherjee – he floated his own party. And even today, I have got best of relationship with Subrata Mukherjee and with Pranabda. I will do anything for Pranabda – I have got great regard and esteem for him.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: In fact you know, political observers have say that Amar Singh has brought into Indian politics this whole concept of not ideology but personal loyalty. Do you agree?

Amar Singh: There is one ideology that I adhere to – I don’t see much of a difference between Congress and SP ideology today – we are both adhere to the policy of secularism. The only difference is that Mulayam Singhji is practicing it, whereas Sonia Gandhi is not. Personal loyalty is a good thing, if you are not loyal to your leader, then you cannot be loyal to your ideology. This loyalty of mine is also reflected in my personal relationships – whether it is Mr Bachchan or Mr Anil Ambani.

Anuradha SenGupta: Well you mention Mr Bachchan, you mention Mr Ambani, what is that, that brings three people together?

Amar Singh: Destiny, emotions, common values and common understanding.

Anuradha SenGupta: Common need?

Amar Singh: No common need. Because Mr Bachchan doesn’t need me for acting, I don’t need him for politics and Mr Ambani is making moolas without us.

Anuradha SenGupta: I believe, you have the largest hanger in Delhi…of private aircraft?

Amar Singh: I don’t know. Simply, I have given a programme and I seriously go through that programme and I use whatever is given to me.

Anuradha SenGupta: But you don’t own any aircraft.

Amar Singh: I don’t own. I don’t have that kind of money. Otherwise Chidambaram would have raided me long time back.

Anuradha SenGupta: Every time I read about you, it says you are a businessman. What is the business?

Amar Singh: I have got a hydel project in Karnataka. I have started a fairly good-sized hydel project in Kerala and I, by one of my companies execute the power plant. They are doing good business. And I have got trading company also, which deals in hospital equipments. And I must say that I am not able to devote much of my time in business. I have got professional managers and I am thankful to them because I pay good income tax and I make decent money. It is necessary now-a-days because you avoid facing any disproportionate asset case, which is a easy tool for any rival.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: Mr Singh, we are in this beautiful airstrip at Panethi near Aligarh. When you are on visit like this, do you get some time for existential questions? Would you like to be the prime minister of this country may be?

Amar Singh: No, I don’t have such wild ambitions. Let me tell you, at the very outset that, twice I have nominated for Rajya Sabha, each time I campaigned very hard – you may ask Mulayam Singhji – that I am not fit to be a Rajya Sabha member. And it is not humility because I genuinely think that you have to give a lot of time to politics, you have to be accountable to a system.

Anuradha SenGupta: What did you tell me about ambitions now – not personal ambitions, your political ambitions?

Amar Singh: Right now my political ambition is to install Mulayam Singh government and to ensure that India is free from political despotism. It is a democracy but we are perpetuating feudalism in the name of democracy. And the kind of statement Mr Rahul Gandhi has made, I find it very disgusting that he has segregated party and his family differently. And the same thing happened when office of profit controversy erupted.

Anuradha SenGupta: Now I find it happen everywhere – this tendency towards feudalism, this tendency to promote your own family. Your elder brother Mr Bachchan, he promotes his son.

Amar Singh: Mind it. You can’t say that Mr Bachchan or Mr Amar Singh or Mrs Jaya Bachchan have worked for Abhishek in Guru, or for matter in Yuva. He has given his share of flops and now he has made it. Like my father was not known at all, I slogged – I remember when I was 35-36, till then I was not noticed. When I came to Delhi, nobody was willing to give a look at me – that is my destiny, I have to work hard. My twin daughters – Drishthi and Disha – their first birthday was televised nationally. In the movie called Guru, the screen names of twin daughters of Abhishek and Aishwarya were given Drishti and Disha – that is their luck. My daughters are getting education in Vasant Valley. I studied in Khatri Vidyalaya in Calcutta. My biggest dream was to get admission in some decent college and I had tiring time to get myself admitted to St Xavier’s College. And I think that is the best think happened to me, because whatever manners, etiquette and language I have imbibed is my days spent in St Xavier’s. Otherwise my schooling was awful, so that opportunity I was deprived off – I was not in Mayo or Doon, I was not in a public school.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: You are not the establishment.

Amar Singh: I am not the establishment, I was underdog.

Anuradha SenGupta: Are you still underdog? Come on Amar Singh, you are not underdog anymore. How can you call yourself underdog?

Amar Singh: The last year started with telephone tapping.

Anuradha SenGupta: Was it the most embarrassing moment of your life?

Amar Singh: Not embarrassing, because I did not do anything wrong. You talk to me, I talk to you – in whatever way as long as you are not offended. It’s none of anybody’s business.

Anuradha SenGupta: But do you feel the kind of reportage that happened because of that CD, do you think that damaged people’s perception of who you…

Amar Singh: I was more concerned about the privacy of the people who spoke with me – more than my reputation. Because somebody is joking – you are a Bombay girl, I am not naming – a particular star I was talking to and I was flirting with that star, because I always flirt…

Anuradha SenGupta: That’s an admission.

Amar Singh: That’s an admission – what’s wrong in healthy flirtation? And I would not like that flirtation or my talk with that person or anybody to be made public. So, that way it is now very difficult when I talk on phone even with close intimate people, I am always on the guard, I am always scared that somebody, somewhere is listing.

Anuradha SenGupta: But what is that – tell me why do you keep getting into so many controversies?

Amar Singh: I think, it is in my destiny to fight with big people and come out, so far, as victorious person. Nobody is scared of me, but everybody thinks, I am an easy prey. That is why I am fighting to prove that, hey, I am there, don’t mess up with me.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: There are people in your party, in SP, who resent you, who feel that you have hijacked what the party actually stands for. It’s antecedent in, you know, the respect it had for Ram Monahor Lohia’s ideology and all of that. And that you have taken it in different direction.

Amar Singh: I don’t think so. If you are referring to Beniprasadji – he is a respected esteemed leader…

Anuradha SenGupta: You get along with Akhilesh Yadav?

Amar Singh: Very well. I would not say a word against any leader. Do you think, there is any other way to extensively cover 402 constituencies in UP in bullock cart? You have to go by plane and by copter. If you are a pedigreed politician, if he or she travels by plane, they may even go Russia also in a prominent industrialist’s plane, nobody will raise an eyebrow, because that is their birthright – they have born with silver spoon in their mouth. But if Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh going in plane or traveling through copter, will be deemed to be a crime. And this will be blamed that this is a departure from socialism.

I wanted to go to Mumbai today to attend Tina Ambani’s art exhibition. It’s a pity I could not take out time for it.

Anuradha SenGupta: Don’t you think you are torn between these two worlds. There is one, which is more fun and pleasure to be in and the other is all about serious work.

Amar Singh: That is true. What upsets me more is that P Chidambaram, someone that do not like at all is inaugurating Tina Ambani’s function.

Anuradha SenGupta: You don’t seem to miss any opportunity to take a potshot at your rivals, isn’t it?

Amar Singh: Not really. Chidambaram is not my rival. He is a big man. He is a blue-blooded Oxford-educated sahib.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: But on the contrary you are a self-made man. Are you not proud of it?

Amar Singh: I am proud of that. I am only unhappy about the rotting thought of these blue-blooded pedigreed politicians.

Anuradha SenGupta: When Mr Bachchan came on as the brand ambassador of UP state and development council, the sense was that all the commercials that came out at that time were financed by the UP development council and therefore the UP state.

Amar Singh: Not a single penny was spent by the UP state council’s public funds. No public money was spent on it.

Anuradha SenGupta: But don’t you think it should have been financed by the state?

Amar Singh: It could have been financed by the state but then questions would have been raised. In case there occurs a change in the regime, they would accuse us that we promoted ourselves. We did not want to take all that risk. More so, because Mr Bachchan was involved in it, we could not have let such things tarnish his image. UP development council, let me tell you, does not even have such a budget. The ad which

Amit ji has done is done by him as the brand ambassador of UP.

Anuradha SenGupta: But in this case UP has become equal to Samajwadi Party?

Amar Singh: That’s not true. That is your presumption. I am seen so much with Mr Bachchan. Going by your connotation Mr Bachchan must be a prt of Samajwadi party, while he is not involved in any politics anywhere. Mrs Bachchan who is a party member has been campaigning for the Samajwadi Party. If someone adds two separate things together, that’s his fertile imagination. She has been doing an ad for the party and she is not apologetic about it. She has simply quoted the national crime bureau report, which says that crime is lesser in UP as compared to other states. WE have only sponsored that ad because we see nothing wrong in it.

PAGE_BREAK

Anuradha SenGupta: I think there are certain gray areas about the way this campaign was done. But that’s my individual opinion.

Amar Singh: It may be our opinion. Had I spent public money on this campaign, you would have pounced on me that it is UP government’s fund, which is being exploited by the SP. Since we started well ahead, before the elections had commenced, and much before any other party could have thought of it, it was noticed.

Anuradha SenGupta: Clever strategy that one.

Amar Singh: Why do you think then I’m a foolish man?

Anuradha SenGupta: Well, I never said you are a foolish man.

Amar Singh: I never said that I am clever person. Even being clever is not a crime, isn’t it?

Anuradha SenGupta: You enjoy being Amar Singh isn’t it?

Amar Singh: I enjoy being what I am. Take it or leave it but I am what I am and I don’t care what others think. If you say that I’m a fixer. I would say, the biggest fixer is the Sonia Gandhi regime. They fix everything. Why don’t you call them a fixer?

Anuradha SenGupta: You made a point earlier saying that it’s the media that comes to you and it’s not you who is running after media, which is quite true. I invited you to come on this show to which you kindly accepted. Everytime somebody asks you for a sound byte, you don’t refuse. Thus it’s a two-way relationship Mr Singh, don’t you think?

Amar Singh: Its not that I love to see my face all the time on television screens. Telling you very candidly, there was a time, when I enjoyed such attention. Long time back I used to be thrilled. I came from a very middle class family and it was a thrill when for the first time I saw my name in the print. Long time back one big national daily and a national channel blacked me out. And then they waited for me to respond. There were many newspapers and news channels. But I said…tu nahin aur sahi, aur nahin aur sahi.

Anuradha SenGupta: Well, I don’t think many people can say such things about you today, Thank you for taking out time for us and for tolerating a lot of our inquisitiveness and curiosity. We wish you all the very best.

Amar Singh: You are welcome. Thank you.