Whiplash

During his darkest days in prison Andimuthu Raja never ever allowed
himself to be cowed down. The term in Tihar didn’t break his spirit,
at least not outwardly. Maybe the long hours spent in solitude in the
night may have given him time to introspect, but his external demeanor
was always positive. It appeared as if he had a Teflon coating. In
court, it was the usual Raja dressed in white in summer and black in
winter. His body language one of an aggressor, his tone one of
confidence personified. By keeping himself busy playing badminton
inside the jail premises, and reading up on his trial, he was always
preparing for battle as it were. A trained lawyer himself, when push
came to shove, he even pushed senior criminal lawyer Sushil Kumar
aside and started arguing his own case before Judge O P Saini in the
CBI trial court.

Raja even today believes that he did the right thing, he reckons that
key members of the Govt were on board viz. all the decisions and that
it was done to break the telecom cartel that existed and as a
consequence bring down tariffs. What one cannot condone is that Raja
aided and abetted by R K Chandolia conjured a scam out of thin air,
after all he sold air waves to a handful of operators, many of whom
weren’t even in the telecom space. In fact a couple of them were from
the realty space. It is Raja’s supreme confidence that belies his
present status. A sea of red and black, supporters swarming outside
the Patiala Court Complex and later in the evening Tihar Jail was a
power statement from Raja. It was as if the Raja of Tihar was emerging
from his palace.

The DMK never consigned Raja to the rubbish heap, his proximity to
Kanimozhi probably responsible for that. Raja was the principal
architect of the January 10,2008 spectrum scam, his brazenness while
doing that is now well established. Over the last 15 months and even
before he went to jail, he displayed the same devil may care attitude.
People forget that Sanchar Bhawan was raided by the CBI while Raja
was a sitting minister. People forget that CBI filed an FIR against
unknown persons while Raja was a minister. Despite all those travails,
Raja was unruffled, Captain Cucumber. It is only when the Supreme
Court came down like a ton of bricks after the damning CAG report that
all hell broke loose.

Now Raja is back, a sneer on his face, eh poda (hey you, move in
Tamil) on his lips as he returns to make a political statement. That
is politics – up one day, down another and back, call it the yo yo
syndrome.