the importance of being subramanian swamy

8/17/2019 The Importance of Being Subramanian Swamy

1/3

5/1/2016 How Subramanian Swamy has always managed to be in the l imelight through his maverick ways - Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/How-Subramanian-Swamy-has-always-managed-to-be-in-the-limelight-through-his-maverick-ways/articleshowprint/52060950.cms 1/3

How Subramanian Swamy has always managed to

be in the limelight through his maverick waysET Bureau | May 1, 2016, 09.47 AM IST

Printed from

It was not long ago when Subramanian Swamy was a dear friend of

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, an upholder of secularism, an

opponent of communal politics of the Sangh Parivar and a sworn

enemy of the BJP. Swamy had single-handedly brought Tamil Nadu

chief minister J Jayalalithaa and Sonia Gandhi together to trigger a

political earthquake 17 years ago in April 1999 at the Ashok hotel in Delhi,leading to the demise of the first Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Very few individuals without ideological, or organisational, baggage can

claim to have achieved so much. So, when Swamy opened his new

innings in Rajya Sabha earlier this week attacking Sonia Gandhi and the

Congress, there was nothing personal about it. If it were anti-BJP politics

that served his purpose two decades ago, it is anti-Congressism that helps him now. It is as simple and opportunistic as that.

The Muckraker-in-Chief

For someone who wrote about disenfranchising Muslims in a newspaper article, there is a strange kind of consistency about

Swamy's character. He is a muckraker par excellence. He can hurl abuses, he can talk through his hat, attack iconic national

leaders and get away with it all. He had called Vajpayee a drunk, former CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet

corrupt and Sonia Gandhi a smuggler. He didn't need hard evidence to do any of this.

One reason why he gets away calling people names is that nobody has ever succeeded in suing him or getting him restrained.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/


2/3



Congress' leader in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad wondered whether there was any distinction between the language of the

street and the language of Parliament and this question assumes centrality while drawing the profile of the Muckraker-in-Chief.

No serious politician would want to get caught talking loosely about her political rivals or national issues. But Swamy has

always done that with great gusto.

The latest episode too is about attacking Sonia Gandhi over the AgustaWestland chopper deal without any hard evidence. TheItalian court has not indicted the Congress leader nor have the Indian agencies named her, despite the BJP government

pursuing this case for about two years. So, there is no proof of Sonia or other Congress leaders receiving a bribe from the

Italian company, Finmeccanica. But the mere Italian connection is enough for Swamy to link Sonia with the bribery scandal.

Very few 76-year-old politicians would do that. Well, that is what makes Swamy different in Indian politics.

Among my favourite parliamentarians — of the last two decades at least — is the late Dipankar Mukherjee of the CPI(M). He

was also a member of Rajya Sabha. He studied his subject thoroughly, investigated issues subtly, crunched numbers,

researched his rivals and arrived in Parliament loaded with evidence. He never uttered a foul word or made an unsubstantiated

allegation and was articulate in English, Hindi and Bengali. Unlike Swamy, the MP from West Bengal was from a desi university,

the Banaras Hindu University, but treated his opponents with great respect and courtesy.

Confronting the Gandhis

Former prime ministers Vajpayee and Chandrashekhar, former minister Jaipal Reddy, current finance minister Arun Jaitley andexternal affairs minister Sushma Swaraj have all been brilliant speakers and persuasive parliamentarians. In fact, in

contemporary politics, there are hardly any high-profile mudslingers, who threaten TV anchors, claiming to expose their

colleagues' links with Niira Radia, the corporate lobbyist.

But that is the importance of being Swamy: somebody has to throw muck for it to stick. The Comptroller and Auditor General

of India had come out with its report on the spectrum allocation, but it was Swamy the litigant who turned it into a political

scandal that swamped the government and exposed it completely. His enemies may call him a blackmailer, but he has been aneffective litigant who has cornered the UPA government and, more so, the Gandhi family. Despite the National Herald share


3/3



switch not involving any loss of public money, Swamy was successful in scripting a high-profile political drama involving the

Gandhis. In political terms, he has been more successful than any other Sangh Parivar insider in cornering the Gandhis and

pursuing them relentlessly.

Now that Swamy has hitched his fortunes with the BJP, particularly prime minister Narendra Modi, he has to perform his role toperfection. After getting richly recompensed with a Rajya Sabha seat for all his past litigations and accusations, it is his

assigned role to drag the Gandhis into all the scandals that tumble out of the UPA closet. But is he content with a mere Rajya

Sabha seat? He had achieved much more in his younger days. Will he turn against the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, yet again?

Well, these questions cannot possibly be answered even by Swamy because the answers lie in what the future holds for him.

Opportunity, not loyalty, is what drives India's maverick muckraker.

the importance of being subramanian swamy

Documents