Amar Singh, Trinamool sing new tune

Former RS member Amar Singh is a frustrated man these days. And the reasons are not far to seek. His term in the Upper House has come to an end and he is yet to find a political party, which will be willing to sponsor him again. His old party — Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party — is bitterly divided over taking him back. To make matters worse, Mr Singh had to vacate his Lodhi Estate bungalow, which had been completely renovated by him. But that is not the end of his woes. Once a virtual family member of the Bachchan parivar, Mr Singh had a nasty falling out with Bollywood badshah Amitabh and his wife Jaya Bachchan.

His stock in Bollywood has fallen since then, and filmstars who flocked to his parties earlier are nowhere to be found. But Mr Singh has not given up. He remains an indefatigable networker and is spotted at all political gatherings. He was last seen at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s iftar dinner and former Union minister Salman Khurshid’s annual mango party. At the same time, he is in talks with a movie house for a possible collaboration in a bid to re-establish his links with Bollywood. Mr Singh admits that the real reason for this venture is to thumb his nose at the Bachchans. In his inimitable style he said, “Tere ghar ke saamne ek ghar banaoonga, duniya basaoonga.”

There has been a sea change in the attitude of Trinamool Congress MPs in Parliament. Until a few months back, they never lost an opportunity to pin down the NDA government. But they are a far mellower lot after relations between CM Mamata Banerjee and the Centre improved. As a result, Trinamool Congress has not lent vociferous support to the Congress-led Opposition demanding the resignation of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and MP and Rajasthan CMs Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje. At the same time, the TC does not want to send out the message that it has struck a deal with the Modi government. Its members have occasionally raised noisy protests against the land acquisition bill as this is one issue on which the entire Opposition is united. But even here, they have been asked to tread carefully. When an excited TC MP shouted, “Kisan ro rahen hain, Modi so rahen hai,” during protests in the LS, his colleague Sudip Bandyopadhyay corrected him, “Don’t say Modi… say BJP instead.”

With Opposition parties making it clear that they will not allow Parliament to function till their demands on Lalitgate and Vyapam scam were met, Prime Minister Modi also did his bit to reach out to his opponents. Mr Modi walked up to the Opposition benches in the LS on the opening days of the Monsoon Session of Parliament to greet their leaders. He even exchanged namastes with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the hope that it will end the logjam in Parliament. The same scene was repeated in the Rajya Sabha a few days later. Mr Modi crossed over to chat with the Opposition leaders including former PM Manmohan Singh.

The PM is said to have asked his predecessor about the fate of the Monsoon Session and the Opposition plans on derailing proceedings. “How long do you think this will go on,” he asked. According to other members present there, Dr Singh responded by reminding him that BJP members had resorted to the same tactics when they were in the Opposition.

Dr Singh also told Mr Modi that he was not allowed to introduce his Cabinet ministers or reply to the debate on the President’s address when he first assumed office in 2004. Mr Modi had no answer to this.

The parking lot in the Parliament House provides a good indicator of how prosperous our politicians have become. The place is choc-a-bloc with SUVs and fancy cars belonging to MPs as compared to the Ambassadors and Fiats seen in earlier years. Given the changed scenario, it is, therefore, refreshing to find that there are many MPs, especially from the left parties, who do not own a vehicle and continue to use the Parliament’s ferry service.

Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Lok Sabha member Mohammed Salim surprised many with this revelation recently, while participating in a television debate on the salaries of lawmakers. He also pointed out that left MPs contributed nearly 75 per cent of their salary to the party. Mr Salim was subsequently inundated with phone calls from his friends in West Bengal who informed him that they were planning to pool in money to buy him a car. Needless to say, Mr Salim declined the offer.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist