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SPOTLIGHT
WHY IS AMAR WOING SANJU
?
By NEERAJ MAHAJAN / NEW DELHI
SAMAJWADI PARTY
general secretary Amar Singh is proving to be the modern day Chanakya
in Indian Politics. There are quite a few similarities too. Remember
how Amar Singh was publicly humiliated at the dinner party hosted by
Sonia Gandhi in the run up to the government formation in 2004.
“I am very ashamed I
went there. I should not have gone there… what was done to me, the
public humiliation and then the bravado expressed by the Congress, it
will cost them dearly,” Singh told Karan Thapar in BBC's ‘Hard Talk’
programme.
That was the day Amar
Singh swore to take revenge against the Congress high command,
particularly Sonia Gandhi and her family. As his subsequent actions
would reveal he never missed an opportunity to take a dig at Congress
president Sonia Gandhi or her son and party’s general secretary Rahul
Gandhi. “I don’t understand why the media went gung-ho with 12-hour
daily coverage and OB vans for live telecast of Rahul baba (Gandhi).
The dimple on his cheeks became national news," Singh is believed to
have said.
In yet another
instance he targeted Rahul Gandhi by saying “his pompous statement
that we (Gandhi family) have broken Pakistan and all the others were
tall claims. The truth is that the percentage (vote) has gone down and
so have the seats. Congress is totally routed. Now every channel is
saying it was Rahul baba's fault and that he had no base”.
In the light of the
above animosity between the Samajwadi and the Congress leadership,
political pundits are surprised why Amar Singh is going out of the way
to extend support to Sanjay Dutt if he decides to contest for the next
Lok Sabha elections.
Even though it is a
fact that Sanjay is known to Amar Singh and that he had campaigned for
Samajwadi Party's candidate Jaya Prada during the last Lok Sabha
elections in Uttar Pradesh, political observers are amazed at the
manner in which Amar Singh even offered a party ticket to Sanjay Dutt,
in case he decided to contest.
Clearly they see it as
a move to split the Congress as Sanjay Dutt's sister Priya Dutt is the
sitting MP from Mumbai North West -- her late father's constituency
which she inherited after their father's death in 2005. Priya won the
seat by 1.7 lakh votes.
The Dutt family has
had a long association with the Congress. Sanjay's mother Nargis was
the first person in the family to take up full time politics as a
Rajya Sabha MP. His father Sunil Dutt was elected five times to the
Lok Sabha from Mumbai Northwest.
Following delimitation
exercise, this constituency is being split in two. One covering
Bandra-Kherwadi, Kalina, Santacruz, Chandivli, Kurla and Vile Parle,
while the other covering areas like Juhu, Amboli, Versova, Andheri,
Jogeshwari and Oshiwara. It is unlikely that brother and sister will
get to contest neighbouring seats.
Though it seems
unlikely that any party can offer two adjoining constituencies to
members of the same family—what the move has done for sure is to drift
the Dutt family, apart from each other.
Already there are
reports that both Priya and Namrata Dutt who had stood by their
brother through every thick and thin during the blast trial, stayed
away from his wedding to Manyata. Sanjay reportedly informed them –
just a few hours before the wedding by SMS. Sanjay Dutt too was
conspicuous by his absence at a camp organised to mark the death
anniversary of his late father Sunil Dutt.
“Please look after
Sanju, see that he does not get mixed up with those silly boys again.
He is too stupid in his head, he does not realise what he is doing and
know it is going to hurt him,” wrote Nargis to Anju, as Namrata is
fondly called by the family, before going to US for her treatment.
Meanwhile political
pundits are surprised at the manner in which one of the first things
that Sanjay Dutt did after his marriage to Manyata a few months back
was to place an advertisement in Samna, wishing Bal Thackeray a Happy
Birthday by Sanjay Dutt and Manyata.
It is reliably learnt
that Sanjay Dutt feels indebted to the Sena supremo who played a major
role in getting him released when he was arrested under TADA for his
alleged role in the serial bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai in March
1993.
But as a new comer to
politics – what Sanjay needs to learn is that nothing comes for free
in politics. There are always some ‘hidden’ strings attached to offers
of support. Even Sunil Dutt at some point of the other in his life,
had to pay a heavy cost for his so-called obligations.
For instance, it is
said that Sunil Dutt knocked at Matoshree—Thackeray’s palatial house
and requested him to get his son out of jail. Even though Dutt
belonged to his rival Congress party and had won the Mumbai North West
Lok Sabha seat, Thackeray agreed to help out. However as a
precondition for getting Sanjay released on bail, Thackeray made Sunil
Dutt agree to give up his North West seat. As planned Sena’s Madhukar
Sarpotdar won the seat in the next LS poll and Sanjay Dutt got out of
the jail on bail.
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