NEW DELHI, May 29: Efven by today's standards in politics this should rank AS a somersault of Olympic proportions. Just over two years ago Abdul Rehman Antulay's single point programme was to get Sharad Pawar arrested under the infamous Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA).

Today, Antulay is Pawar's spokesperson and sees the Congress Lok Sabha leader as the party's saviour. It is as difficult now to get a word of criticism on Pawar out of Antulay as it was to hear him praise his former bete noire in late 1994. It took barely two years of Pawar moving to Delhi to catalyse this rapid change in Antulay's eyes.

Consider these `considered' opinions of Antulay on Pawar then : ``Pawar was squeezing the common people to fill his coffers. He believes in gold and diamonds...... TADA is meant for the most dangerous criminals and terrorists and the most dangerous criminal of them all is Sharad Pawar.''

"Why should he be above TADA..... Pawar symbolises a total lack of values and the bestial behaviour of the police.''

``Under Pawar, Bombay is not only unsafe, it is violent and dangerous. You never know when bullets will be sprayed all around. Varsha (then Pawar's residence in Mumbai as the Maharashtra Chief Minister) is full of anti-social elements. I don't know how many are hiding there.''

And there's more on Pawar's political ambitions and his place in the Congress. ``Why should Pawar be equated with the Congress. Who is Pawar? He became Chief Minister (CM) for the first time by stabbing Dada (Vasantdada Patil) in the back. Rajiv Gandhi made him CM the next time.'' ``The Congress (I) was born in my house, 2, Janpath,'' Antulay fumed then.

All this was with reference to a case of a Muslim family in Raigad, Maharashtra, being arrested for allegedly stocking rocket launchers in their house. The launchers later turned out be harmless spindles but the case became a celebrated one and haunted Pawar for sometime. He was later defeated in the elections fought in the backdrop of the Bombay blasts.

Soon after his loss, Pawar announced he was moving to Delhi and it was around this time that Antulay began seeing him in a new light. This was taken to its logical conclusion when Antulay filed his nomination for the Congress president's post in the organisational elections, which he subsequently withdrew in Pawar's favour.

So enamoured is Antulay of Pawar now that he only filed his papers as a dummy for Pawar, indicating this even before he actually staked his claim. Once Pawar threw his hat in the ring, Antulay quickly embraced him and the rest is, well, history. The duo is practically inseparable today and in the fight against Sitaram Kesri, both have joined hands solidly.

There is thus a comic element to Antulay's defence of Pawar as he voices fears on the possibility of the election being put off indefinitely, or of it being rigged heavily in Kesri's favour.

Antulay hovers around Pawar almost all the time and sees the one-time defence minister as a messiah of the minority community and as one who can revive the Congress from the current mess it is in.

Both come from Maharashtra, a state which was one of Congress' proudest bases, where an ultra-right combine rules now. Having been driven from their home state, the duo apparently feels that grabbing power at the helm of the Congress is the only way out for survival.

It appears unlikely that Pawar will be able to undo Kesri at the hustings. But even a loss will keep him at the centrestage in Congress politics for a long while, or so he feels.

For Antulay, nothing much is likely to change as this is just another manoeuvre in a long career. But of more interest will be to see if he makes another somersault, given that the Congress president's election is a good 11 days away.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.