Amar Singh's tell-all book is a ticking bomb; Delhi's most powerful fixer back in business

New Delhi: A bomb is ticking away in a farmhouse in fashionable rural Delhi. When it explodes, it will blow to smithereens reputations in places as far and wide as Lutyens's Delhi and Mumbai. The high and mighty, the movers and shakers, the shadowy operators and smooth fixers who lubricate the wheels of politics, government, finance and industry will be scorched. The bold and the beautiful who dominated Bollywood will be burned. This bomb is the autobiography being penned by Amar Singh, tentatively titled "Life With Weathercocks". It will be a tell-all book, he tells us, a group of journalists present at the shooting of 'Press Conference', an ABP News TV show anchored by Dibang. The book will not only tell all, but it will sizzle with details that have so far been whispered about but not publicly spoken. Like? "It will be explicit in exposing weathercocks and fair-weather friends. I will say whatever can be said and then leave it to the reader to conclude... Like raat akeli hai, bujh gaye diye (the night is alone, the lights have gone out)," Amar Singh says of his book and bursts into laughter. If that's any indication, "Life With Weathercocks" promises to be a hot-seller in more ways than one. With Amar Singh authoring it, there's no reason to doubt that the book will score very high on the Scoville Scale which is used for measuring the heat units of chillies. But Amar Singh being the inimitable Amar Singh, this book could be his way of marking his return to politics with a very big bang. Not only would it help settle scores with those whom he had helped and who in turn had abandoned him during the years he was down and out, it would also signal that age has not mellowed one of the most powerful stalkers of Delhi's corridors of power. Amar Singh appeared on this show, which will be broadcast on Saturday at 8.00 pm, after his ghar wapasi to the Samajwadi Party and nomination as a Rajya Sabha member by Mulayam Singh Yadav. He may not have yet regained the power and clout he wielded as party general secretary before being unceremoniously expelled in February 2010, but these are early days. In response to questions, Amar Singh repeatedly cites Tulsidas and Kabir, making out that he has moved out of the grooves of power politics and is no longer driven by ambition. It would be naive to believe him when he says that. Power is the ultimate high for those incurably addicted to it. Dibang asks him whether he places sambandh (relations, power networking) over sahuliyat (easy sophistry, good manners), or the other way round. Amar Singh does not think twice before saying "it's always sambandh over sahuliyat". He then goes on to recount how Sri Ram suffered on account of placing sahuliyat above all. The unstated bit is that Sri Ram returned to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile; he has returned to the SP after six years in exile. Both Sri Ram and he bore their travails with fortitude. Of course he doesn't say that. Nor is he willing to talk in detail of his expulsion, exile and homecoming. "Moving far away was a fact, coming close again is equally a fact. To tell the story would take the whole night." On bitterness in separation and happiness in reconciliation all he would say is, "Bitterness is a personal issue, it should remain personal. To deny bitterness would be to lie. I am no saint. Mulayam Singh said 'Amar Singh lives in my heart' ... Dil toh pagal hai, dil diwana hai. Whatever has to happen will happen. I don't live in the past or care for the future. I live in, and for, the present." Isn't there a glaring contradiction between being an unabashed capitalist living the high life and a politician mouthing samajwad, socialism? "I am not a Samajwadi, I am a Mulayamwadi. I was not drawn to politics by ideology," he retorts. He has few regrets. Not even helping Amitabh Bachchan when he was broke and on the verge of losing everything. The star has now dumped him. "I wish him well," says Amar Singh, "May he win the tax and Panama Papers cases against him." It's hard not to miss the trace of a Mephistophelian smile which disappears in a flash. Amar Singh dismisses all stories of the Mulayam Clan being upset with his return. None of the stories, including Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Shivpal giving him the short shrift, are true, he insists. When presented with specific instances, he waves the slight aside as inconsequential and unintended. Any lessons learned while he had time to ruminate during the years in political wilderness? "Yes. One should not get involved in others' family matters. You will remain an outsider. And when the time comes, the family will unite against you, the outsider." He says that's what happened with him, the outsider, for getting involved with the Ambani family affairs.