One game to another, a political play

The voice of the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games, the showpiece event of Indira Gandhi’s Congress, is not welcome for this year’s Commonwealth Games, the extravaganza set to symbolise the might of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress.

The Commonwealth Games organising committee today all but ruled out the demand for making Amitabh Bachchan the brand ambassador for the event to be held in Delhi from October 3 to 14.

“We are thinking of brand ambassadors from sports like Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha. We are thinking of young people,” committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi said when asked about the suggestion of BJP leader V.K. Malhotra that Bachchan be made the main brand ambassador of the event.

Malhotra is the vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association, headed by Kalmadi.

That the megastar is no longer considered worthy of being the ambassador of such a showpiece event of the Congress is in many ways symbolic of the final break in what was once an extremely close relationship between two of India’s most famous families.

Bachchan’s baritone reciting the hymns at the Asiad opening ceremony, watched by childhood buddy and future Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, heralded the event which was touted as Indira’s crowning glory following her triumphant return to power post-Emergency.

Bachchan, now facing barbs from the Congress over his association with Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, has maintained he has been apolitical save the brief period as Lok Sabha member between 1985-87 when the actor had teamed up with Rajiv to serve the Congress.

However, a closer look at the actor’s life shows how destiny has always brought together politics and political figures. It also explains why Congress leaders, including Sonia, are outraged over his association with Modi.

Almost all of these events and instances are well documented in books and memoirs, which have not been contested by the Bachchan family.

The Bachchans’ tale of friendship with the Nehru-Gandhis dates back to Anand Bhavan, Allahabad. Indira was still unmarried and Sarojini Naidu had introduced poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and his Sikh wife Teji — Amitabh’s parents — to Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter as “the poet and the poem”.

Amitabh was barely four when he was introduced to Rajiv, who was two then. There was a fancy dress party at the Bachchans’ Bank Road residence in Allahabad at which Rajiv was dressed up as a freedom fighter.

In an interview, Amitabh had recalled: “Ma (Teji) says he messed up his pants. We were all such tiny kids then, absorbed in our little games that it did not seem a big deal that Pandit Nehru’s grandson was in our midst.”

When Nehru moved to New Delhi’s Teen Murti Bhavan as India’s first Prime Minister, Rajiv and his brother Sanjay were often spotted playing with Bachchan siblings Amitabh and Ajitabh along with Adil Shaharyar, the son of Indira aide Mohammed Yunus, and Kabir Bedi.

While Rajiv and Sanjay were studying at Doon School, Amitabh and Ajitabh were at Nainital’s Sherwood. During the holidays in New Delhi, which fell around the same time, the boys met and swam every day at the pool of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Rajiv and Sanjay exposed Amitabh to avant garde cinema when European films were specially screened at Rashtrapati Bhavan for the Nehru-Gandhi family. Amitabh recalls attending with Rajiv and Sanjay the screening of films like Cranes are Flying and other Czech, Polish and Russian movies rich in anti-war message.

Indira’s close aide Yashpal Kapoor was extremely fond of Amitabh. Kapoor, more famous for toppling Opposition governments in states, is said to have tried getting Amitabh to Delhi’s prestigious St Stephen’s College. For some reason, Amitabh did not join, preferring to move to Kirorimal College (perhaps due to a better course option) but his younger brother Ajitabh studied economics at Stephen’s.

Amitabh’s first break in Bollywood was in K.A. Abbas’s Saat Hindustani, based on the liberation of Goa. Abbas was considered close to Indira, the then Prime Minister, and there were whispers that she had put in a word for the struggling actor. But Abbas stoutly denied having acted at Indira’s behest.

Harivansh Rai, later to become a Rajya Sabha member, was requisitioned in the foreign office by Nehru’s government while Teji was made director of the Film Finance Corporation in 1973. This was the time when Amitabh got married to Jaya. The guest list was extremely short but Sanjay was present, representing the Gandhis.

When Amitabh emerged as an actor, Rajiv would often visit him on the sets, extremely unobtrusive, waiting patiently till he completed a shot.

Amitabh recalled: “His nature was that he would never misuse his family name. More often than not, Rajiv would not disclose his surname, fearing the distance it would create between him and the common man.”

Then came the Emergency. Amitabh, who was frequently seen in Sanjay’s company, faced media wrath for supporting it. On April 11, 1976, Delhi hosted a function called “Geeton Bhari Sham,” ostensibly to raise money for Sanjay and Rukhsana Sultana (actress Amrita Singh’s mother)’s controversial family planning programme. Both Amitabh and Jaya were present in the company of Sanjay.

Around that time when Indira’s Emergency information and broadcasting minister Vidya Charan Shukla was clamping down on violence in Hindi films, came Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay.

Writers Salim-Javed and the rest were tense if the film would pass the censor board. Amitabh’s association came in handy as the otherwise intimidating Shukla cleared it with minor cuts, including a change in the climax.

Throughout the 19-month-long Emergency, Amitabh remained silent on the ban imposed on Kishore Kumar by All India Radio and Doordarshan and the ostracism of the likes of Pran and Dev Anand, both outspoken critics of the government.

Film journalism faced stiff censorship where even a gossip item about a young Amitabh and the sensational Zeenat Aman was not tolerated.

After Sanjay’s death, the entry of Rajiv saw Amitabh offering his signature voice at the 1982 Asian Games opening ceremony in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. Rajiv, the chief organiser, sat in the front row as Amitabh anchored the show.

Following the Bofors uproar, Amitabh, an MP from Allahabad, left politics, disillusioned. The superman was accused of being a middleman. Amitabh fought for his honour and won a protracted legal battle, but he could not sever his links with politics.

In August 1996, Amitabh’s Juhu residence saw two VVIPs, the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda breaking bread with the Shiv Sena’s Balasaheb Thackeray. The sight of an iconic Amitabh bowing before the self-proclaimed moral guardian did not go down well with many of his admirers.

A series of financial setbacks brought Amitabh close to Amar Singh and, through him, to the cash-rich Sahara group of Subroto Roy.

As Amar fell out with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam, Amitabh was seen in the company of Narendra Modi, who he described as “shahenshah”. Activist and dancer Mallika Sarabhai, who had unsuccessfully contested against Advani, alleged that Amitabh’s association with Gujarat is based on three specific reasons.

“I was told by a Gujarat government official that Mr. Bachchan wanted tax exemption in Gujarat, free land for his film city and a Rajya Sabha seat for his wife Jaya Bachchan, who may not be able to represent Uttar Pradesh with the change in the political equations there,” she said.

Amitabh has not commented on Sarabhai’s allegations but he had once told a scribe why he chose to quit politics.

He had recalled that once in Assam, a fan came running to him saying how much he loved the actor but hated his association with the Congress. “Please do not make me choose between the two personalities,” the fan is said to have pleaded with him.

Congressmen who know Sonia’s mind well wonder how Amitabh, who has championed the cause of the downtrodden in many of his films, now feels about the millions of his fans who are uncomfortable about Modi.