Once he was king. But now the power equations in Rajasthan have changed and Lalit Modi’s throne is rocking writes Smita Gupta in Outlook.
The opulent Prince’s Suite at the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur was once occupied by Maharani Gayatri Devi’s son, Prince Jagat Singh. In the 21st century, though, it has been home to a controversial modern-day prince, Lalit Kumar Modi, for several days every other month for the last four years. The jetsetting industrialist, man about town and architect of the spectacularly successful Indian Premier League, whose reported fondness for the good life is matched only by his overweening ambition, didn’t just administer the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) from this charmed, Rs 90,000-a-night zone of luxury. He reportedly ran Rajasthan, courtesy his proximity to the former state chief minister, Vasundhararaje.
Such was his influence that it earned Modi, 46, the sobriquet of Super Chief Minister, his role becoming a key issue in the state assembly elections last November. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot, then leading the Congress election campaign, openly accused Modi of acting as an “extra-constitutional authority”. With Vasundhararaje voted out of power and Gehlot ensconced in her seat, the man who ruled Rajasthan from behind the throne, riding roughshod over civil servants and ministers, is finally facing the heat. Last month, Modi had to cool his heels for several hours at a police station here after an FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint by a Samajwadi Party activist for forgery. And to think this was the man who had once slapped a constable for walking into his box at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium (SMS) during a cricket match, triggering off a near-revolt in the city’s constabulary.
Read Lalit Modi’s interview here.
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