It was a late summer evening in 2004 and one of those rare occasions then when reporters were allowed to enter 10 Janpath, Sonia Gandhi’s residence cum office. The UPA had won the parliamentary elections and the Congress was on a high.
We were called for a photo op and some tea with Sonia Gandhi. In walked a small man in white kurta pyjama. I had just begun covering the Congress party and wasn’t well versed with all the netas and what their importance was. I was told 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 a lot. He had good equations with almost everyone in the Congress, and even though he had personal favourites and was often accused of playing favourites when it came to making decisions, the fact is Ahmed Patel’s door was always open for netas. Young and old. The thing about him which we would notice is he had mastered the art of dealing with bosses. He would never give his opinion to Sonia Gandhi or the other Gandhis, He would place both the versions with the pros and cons. And the final call was left to the Gandhis. But once the task was given to him by the Gandhis to broker peace, there was no one who could match or beat his hard bargaining.
Among reporters, there was another joke. The moment Ahmed Patel would stop responding to your messages and taking your calls during a crisis, it would be clear that he was at work. The phone lines opening up meant the crisis had been averted and Ahmed Patel was once again successful.
One of my last memories of him as a fighter was during the Rajya Sabha elections where he had contested. We were parked in Ahmedabad and it was touch and go. Ahmedji would walk in and out of the hotel where he had put up and each time there would be a smile on his face and he would tell us not to worry. “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 think it was a prestige battle for Sonia Gandhi. But I know she wanted me to win so I am happy for her.”
In political reportage one comes across many netas. Some are nice to you when they need the news to be displayed. Some don’t exchange anything beyond little courtesies. But some like Ahmed Patel always kept in touch. The party will miss him. But to those of us who began our party coverage with him, the loss of a neta who was also a friend, a communicator, is irreplaceable. Those Diwali calls will be missed. Rest in peace.
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