V P Singh Reaping the Profits of a McDonald's Franchise?

The Politician as an Artist Statesman

Mr V P Singh, former Prime Minister of India and the 40th Raja of Manda (in Allahabad), who came to power in 1989 after displaying the blank side of a white chit in rallies after rallies claiming that it had Rajiv Gandhi's Swiss bank account codes, has now fashioned himself into an elder-ailing statesman.

Battling with cancer, as well as suffering from kidney failure, Mr Singh has impressed people with his artistic side by holding occasional painting exhibitions. In accordance with the current trend of releasing political memoirs, he also graced his presence in the book-launch of his new biography titled Manzil Se Zyada Safar.

The Raja of Manda and the Manipulator of Mandal

Marketing himself as an icon of Dalits and other low caste Indians, Mr Singh never fails to remind people that it was his government which accepted the Mandal Commission recommendations in 1990 that called for 27% reservation for Other Backward classes (OBCs), over and above the existing 22.5% reservation for Schedule Castes and Tribes.

This single act was the defining moment of Mr Singh's prime ministerial tenure and it raised him to the image of both Angel and Demon, depending on which side of the reservation divide you were.

Disappearing from Public Life and Coming Back

With the passing of years, as ultra-nationalistic and communal BJP ascended and Prime Ministers changed, Mr Singh came to acquire an aura of belonging to times which was quaint and more innocent.

He receded from the active politics. He had to regularly undergo dialysis for his liver problem. He even refused the offer of again becoming Prime Minister immediately after the fall of Deve Gowda government in 1997.

The Messiah Reinvents Himself

Over the past few years, Mr Singh has emerged again in public life. He managed to overcome the bitterness of the past and reconciled with Sonia Gandhi. He went on to sit on one-day hunger-strikes with slum dwellers in Delhi against the demolition of their shanties. He honed the art of speaking in a pained tone in his public speeches.

He became a Nehru-style statesman for India's downtrodden and lent his name to a variety of liberal causes: arguing against globalization; supporting activists like Medha Patkar in the Narmada Dam agitation; speaking out against communalism; calling for the repealing of amendments to the Right to Information Bill; most recently leading a tirade against the Uttar Pradesh government's low-priced acquisition of farmers' land for the proposed mega gas-based power project at Dadri by Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy.

It is a new V P Singh. Forgotten is his glaring lack of sympathy for the dozens of young students who burned themselves alive in the dark days of the Mandal agitation. Forgotten are his blatant lies about Rajiv Gandhi who died with the Bofors stain sticking on to his reputation. Forgotten is that he introduced Mandal recommendations only to counter the appeal of Mr L K Advani, another shame and disgrace of Indian democracy, who had captured the imagination of millions of Hindus in his bloodied Rath Yatra in 1990. Forgotten that it was his government that gave an impetus to terrorism in Kashmir by releasing five dreaded terrorists in exchange for the kidnapped daughter of his Home Minister. Forgotten that once he had shamelessly said that he had to go to London for his dialysis since the water in India was so dirty. Forgotten the fact that he stayed in London at the Indian tax-payers' expanse in the swanky 5-star St James Hotel.

The Messiah of the downtrodden! Indeed.

The Raja is Exposed Once Again

However, the forgotten episodes of past lives return in most unexpected ways. A small news-story in The Times of India recently reported that the supporters of the ruling Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh, agitated with Mr Singh's protest against the Ambani project, ransacked a multiplex mall being built by Ajeya Singh, V P Singh's son, in his hometown Allahabad. The Samajwadi Party goons, the newspaper added, 'stormed the multiplex', and broke 'into the McDonald's restaurant'.

Multiplex! Mall? McDonald's? And V P Singh!

Are these - the most potent symbols of globalization - the business affairs of a family whose chief so passionately raises the bogey against globalization?

But isn't it being harsh on Mr Singh? It is his son, and not he himself. One can not be held accountable for one's son's actions? Right? In the same report, Mr Singh is quoted saying: 'All I would like to say is that I have nothing to do with the project that is owned by my son. However, let me tell you that such tactics would not affect my mission of getting the farmers their due in Dadri.'

Perhaps Mr Singh has nothing to do with the multiplex project. Most likely, he does not eat McDonald's Mahaburgers. It is certain that he would never like to be seen shopping in his son's mall once it is complete. But father and son are said to be intimate and enjoy a good relationship; so whether Mr Singh likes it or not, he will be a beneficiary of the profits which his son is to make from Malls, Multiplexes and McDonald's.

Remember the Hypocrisy

Just as it is important to analyse while measuring the legacy of the great communist icon Mr Jyoti Basu as how this Marxist's only son became such a successful industrialist of Marxist-ruled Kolkata, it will be necessary to note just how Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh in the midst of struggling against rich industrialists and globalization allowed his homely comforts to be provided by the sale of McDonald's burgers.

It is these little things that provide a perspective in the narrative of a politician.