Subramanian Swamy emerges as chief tormentor of Congress-led UPA government at centre

Subramanian Swamy has emerged as the chief tormentor of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. And not without reason. He was the sponsor of the petition that saw the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking the government to accord sanction to prosecute corrupt officials within a span of four months. On Thursday, he was yet again the cynosure of all eyes. 

Besides Anna Hazare and his team, the 73-year-old, Harvard-educated Janata Party president has, over a period of time, earned the tag of the most powerful anti-graft crusaders. 

The fact that Swamy's campaign has been scripted almost single-handedly doesn't bother him. He has, in the past two decades-and-a-half, built his reputation as something of a maverick. He's too individualistic to be encumbered by the structure of a political outfit. Since 1990, he has been heading a party which exists only on paper, and has no political base. 

His dalliance with AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa ended almost soon after he had scripted the downfall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. 

While he may not have many admirers in the political circuit, he has his own legion of fans outside, especially in the virtual world. Every act of his that exposes the flanks of the ruling dispensation draws loud cheers from his fan-club.Aware that he cannot cut into the power grid without the backing of a political party, Swamy has been trying to endear himself with the Sangh Parivar, with whom he retains a long, but chequered, association.