Option before Amar Singh

Bikash Choudhury


Amar Singh is known for bringing a regional party to national prominence with his characteristic chutzpah, telepresence, sound bites and of course his famous networking skills and contacts with showbiz personality & corporate chieftains. Amar Singh has to his credit of saving the union Govt.of Manmohan Singh single handed with the support of his mentor Mulayam Singh. That is one of his biggest mistakes in his political career. He was used by congress as expected and thrown out mercilessly; in the process he earned the ire of powerful second line leadership in his party and lost the confidence of his leader. Again Amarji committed the second big mistake by not recognizing his shelve life in a family run political shop and just like a novice, pitched himself against others in the Mulayam's family and sadly shown the door as brutally as he had himself done to scores of other leaders in Samajwadi party earlier. Suddenly, Amar Singh after spending over two decades in politics has become a persona-non-grata due to his larger than life public profile. However, nobody would grudge Amar Singh his due as a public figure having a national appeal. What are the options before Amar Singh? Reams of papers have been already wasted in news paper and magazine on the subject but still the issue has live audience; that’s not a mean achievement. And, still millions of people will expect Amar Singh to use his political clout for a constructive and productive national cause. He has already chosen to work on the area of education for children in UP. In my opinion that can not keep him fully engaged politically knowing his famous capability in organisation. Here are a few Ideas for keeping Amar Singhji fully occupied.

In this country there is no dearth of conventional political parties that only talks and creates false public perception for a vote bank; but, there is a need and available political space for an Action Oriented political party that would choose its workers and leaders on the basis of actual work done on the ground for the people and the constituency he or she seeks election. Can Amar Singhji fill this need of Political Space? If yes, then he could earn a huge dividend in terms of mass mobilization and public support. Further, he can organize and mobilize young people for following larger national cause.

• Pitch for transparent private & public funding of election and political parties.
• Work for preservation and development of natural resources-Water, Green Cover ECT.
• Create public awareness for clean and green cities.
• Quality education for all through large scale private intervention.
• And, collaborate with smaller and regional political parties inside and outside parliament to fight for these issues.
Amar Singh's public profile and his intelligent media management would help create a substantial Political space for himself as Leader and Issues that he promotes on national cause. Make over of Amar Singh as a leader with mass base heading a party with difference could be a reality. Amar Singh must give himself one more chance.