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It was a late summer time night in 2004 and one of these uncommon events then when reporters have been allowed to enter 10 Janpath, Sonia Gandhi’s residence cum workplace. The UPA had received the parliamentary elections and the Congress was on a excessive.
We have been referred to as for a photograph op and a few tea with Sonia Gandhi. In walked a small man in white kurta pyjama. I had simply begun protecting the Congress get together and wasn’t nicely versed with all the netas and what their significance was. I used to be informed by a senior Congress reporter then, “This man is Ahmed Patel. He is the most important leader you must cultivate and he should learn to trust you.”
It’s later that I came to know what he meant by, “He must learn to trust you”, when it comes to Ahmed Patel. Anyway, I was introduced to Ahmedji as a new Congress reporter. He gave me a broad smile saying, “Welcome.” Months passed. We would cross paths because I covered the Congress and he was the deepest link between Sonia Gandhi and the party. On Diwali, my phone rang. A man on the other side said, “Ahmed Patel wants to speak to you.” Ahmed Bhai came on the line and wished me and my family “a very shubh Diwali”. It’s a call which was always made to me without fail each year. Not this year, though, as he was suffering from Covid-19 by then.
But this is what Ahmed Patel was all about. He took his time to know you. To even take your calls. But a call on Diwali meant he had begun to trust you. His response to messages and calls would always come late into the night. Mostly after 2am. If one needed news from him, one had to learn to stay up late; that was our joke . All his conversations would end with, “Mujhe mat quote karna. Mujhe kuch nahi pata (Don’t quote me. I know nothing).”
Of course, Ahmed Patel knew rather a lot. He had good equations with nearly everybody in the Congress, and although he had private favourites and was typically accused of enjoying favourites when it got here to making choices, the reality is Ahmed Patel’s door was all the time open for netas. Young and previous. The factor about him which we’d discover is he had mastered the artwork of coping with bosses. He would by no means give his opinion to Sonia Gandhi or the different Gandhis, He would place each the variations with the execs and cons. And the ultimate name was left to the Gandhis. But as soon as the job was given to him by the Gandhis to dealer peace, there was nobody who may match or beat his laborious bargaining.
Among reporters, there was one other joke. The second Ahmed Patel would cease responding to your messages and taking your calls throughout a disaster, it will be clear that he was at work. The cellphone traces opening up meant the disaster had been averted and Ahmed Patel was as soon as once more profitable.
One of my final reminiscences of him as a fighter was throughout the Rajya Sabha elections the place he had contested. We have been parked in Ahmedabad and it was contact and go. Ahmedji would stroll out and in of the lodge the place he had put up and every time there could be a smile on his face and he would inform us not to fear. “Jo hoga dekha jaayega (Whatever happens we will deal with it).” But once the result came out and he won, the tears in his eyes gave away how much this win mattered. Despite the denial it was clear a defeat would have been seen as a loss for Sonia Gandhi as well.
In his interview with me then he told me, “I don’t assume it was a status battle for Sonia Gandhi. But I do know she wished me to win so I’m completely happy for her.”
In political reportage one comes throughout many netas. Some are good to you after they want the information to be displayed. Some don’t alternate something past little courtesies. But some like Ahmed Patel all the time saved in contact. The get together will miss him. But to these of us who started our get together protection with him, the loss of a neta who was additionally a buddy, a communicator, is irreplaceable. Those Diwali calls shall be missed. Rest in peace.
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