The Congress can benefit from the Bachchans

Who would be Amitabh Bachchan? He has, on one hand, everything going for him (unimaginable fame, riches, work satisfaction, family); on the other hand, every day new controversies seem to break around him, most of them erupting through no fault of his. Take the latest. From what we can see through press reports, Ajit Gulabchand who heads the consortium which has built the Bandra Sea Link, invites Bachchan to the inauguration of the second carriageway.

Bachchan accepts and as befits a national icon, is seated with the Chief Minister. The ceremony goes off well, the media coverage is huge… Then all hell breaks loose.

Who are the anonymous Congressmen creating the ruckus? Why are they making such a massive mountain out of a tiny molehill? In making the invitation to Bachchan such a contentious issue, why are they forgetting one simple fact? The Bandra Worli Sea Link is not, repeat NOT, a Congress party bridge. It’s a link made for each and every Mumbaikar, and paid for by each and every Mumbaikar whatever his or her party affiliation, whether Congress, BJP, Sena, MNS, SP or no party. So if Amitabh Bachchan, one of the city’s best known figures was invited and given a place of honour, it was only fitting that this was done.

Why are these clamorous Congressmen also forgetting another simple fact: Amitabh Bachchan is himself not a party man at all. He may be brand ambassador for Gujarat Tourism, but he has also been brand ambassador, if memory serves right, for UP Industries, and in choosing these disparate roles, he has shown admirable non-partisanship (though not admirable judgement)

Why are these clamorous Congressmen also forgetting that the only party Bachchan has belonged to in his life is their own? I am willing to bet that some of the party workers making the most noise now were the most fawning of courtiers when Rajiv Gandhi was alive and Bachchan stood by his side in the 1985 elections.

The mistake in judgement that Bachchan made in accepting the Gujarat Brand Ambassadorship now is in a way similar to his acceptance of the Congress ticket in Allahabad way back then. Both have come from a political naiveté: at that time the only reason he gave for taking on the redoubtable former UP CM Bahuguna (and routing him in the elections), was that he was doing it because Rajiv Gandhi had asked him to. You don’t make career choices out of friendship, especially to go into a line so full of snake pits and charlatans, but that’s what Bachchan did. The only reward he got was to be tarred with the Bofors brush, a linkage which in the end proved to be entirely unfounded as far as he was concerned.

Sonia Gandhi will surely realise that the Bachchan star-power is considerable: there’s not just Amitabh himself, but wife Jaya, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya. Get them on your side, and you have enough wattage to blind any opposing politician in an election. Three of the four Bachchans are apolitical (and of these three, one has been a Congressman); the fourth (Jaya) is with SP which till recently has been supporting the government. Even she must be re-thinking her association with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party, not just because of good friend Amar Singh’s resignation from the SP, but because of the uneasiness of any woman with the Yadav stand against the Women’s Bill. Now is the right time to strike, and get the Bachchan clan to support the only political party which makes sense now.

We will then see the fun begin. We will see the sealink clamouring Congressmen running for cover. We will then see them wait for a while and seize the right chance to emerge out of the woodwork with chants that go, “Sonia Gandhi zindabad, Amitabh Bachchan zindabad.”