The wheeling-dealings in Delhi’s power corridors are as complex and interesting as that in Mumbai’s underworld, reveals Raja Hindustani.
Whistleblower in cash-for-votes scam names Amar Singh, Ahmed Patel; spells out power jargon
NEW DELHI: The wheeling-dealings in Delhi’s power corridors are as complex and interesting as that in Mumbai’s underworld, reveals Raja Hindustani, not the character played by Aamir Khan in the Bollywood masala mix by the same name, but one of the whistleblowers of the cash-for-votes scam, Suhail Ahmed.
Like Aamir, Suhail also shies away from the media. He fears for his life after the expose and if killed, wishes to be buried near Jama Masjid adjoining parliament.
Suhail claims to be a “BJP karyakarta” and says he has been liaising with MPs of various political parties for the last 15 years.
In the process, he has picked up the jargon. “The place for political wheeling-dealings is called the ‘market’ and an MP who is willing to cross over for a consideration is called a ‘plot’,” he says.
If khoka is Rs1crore and peti Rs1lakh in Mumbai’s underworld, in Delhi’s corridors of power the codeword for bribe for an MP is ‘paper’, Hindustani reveals.
A shadowy figure until July 22, the day the UPA government won the trust vote, Suhail played a key role, along with the three BJP MPs, in exposing the cash-for-votes scam.
On Monday, he was summoned for questioning by the parliamentary panel probing the scam.
After deposing before the committee, the short and stout 40-something was gheraod by the media. But he did not reveal much.
Asked his name, he said people “pyar se” called him Raja Hindustani. “Whatever I wanted to say, I said before the committee.”
Asked if he was with the BJP or Samajwadi Party leader and scam accused Amar Singh, he said, “I am with the desh (nation)”.
Thereafter, he started walking away hurriedly. When some probing scribes tried to follow him, he literally took to his heels.
Suhail’s 12-page statement submitted to Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, copies of which are now in the possession of certain BJP leaders and the parliamentary panel, gives a graphic account of the scam and the sting operation.
Written in Hindi, the statement begins like this: “All the information contained in this statement is based on truth, and nothing but truth, and I say this by invoking the name of Allah. My life is in threat, but I am ready to sacrifice it for truth. My only wish is that my body be buried near Jama Masjid.”
The statement gives minute details of the operation between July 17 and 22 and mentions the names of SP general secretary Amar Singh and Ahmed Patel, the political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as masterminds of the scam.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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