Mid-Flight 'Air Pockets'

Roy first ran into "turbulence" three weeks after a rally in Barabanki in UP in October 2004, in which Jaya Bachchan, campaigning for the SP, said the Gandhis had "betrayed" her husband, Amitabh Bachchan. Soon enough, the RBI swung into action and announced its roadmap for residuary non-banking companies (RNBCS) and deploying of deposits. This was bad news for Roy who runs a mammoth parabanking network.

Earlier, 10 per cent of their aggregate liabilities to depositors was required to be invested in fixed deposits or in certificates of deposits of scheduled commercial banks/ selected fiis, 70 per cent in government securities, bonds, debentures or units of mutual funds. Only the remaining 20 per cent could go into discretionary investments. The discretionary investments was reduced to 10 per cent with effect from April 1, '05. From 2006, discretionary investments will be abolished. This means that parabanking funds—the source of Sahara's wealth—cannot be deployed in the stock market or invested in new projects or sister concerns. An unfriendly equation with 10, Janpath means limited access in government. When the RBI announced its roadmap for the para-banking sector, Subroto Roy attempted to contact Union finance minister P. Chidambaram but the perfunctory meeting yielded nothing. In the months since, Sahara has also tried to gradually distance itself from the SP, particularly Amar Singh. But Sonia's position vis-a-vis Roy hasn't changed.

Building bridges with the government and the Congress is high on Sahara's list of priorities. As part of this, sources say in the last few weeks Roy's son Sushanto met Chidambaram, accompanied by a UP politician. They also sought an appointment in the PMO. These meetings are said to be an attempt to tell the Congress that it is distancing itself from the SP as well as to underline the fact that Amar Singh has no financial interest or hold over the Sahara group.