The big byte

rudy is what they used to call him at home but it's now his surname. but that's not the only unusual thing about him. a bihari, he didn't enrol in delhi university or jawaharlal nehru university when he completed school at st michael's in patna. he went straight to panjab university. here, in chandigarh, he spent eight years, first being elected to the college union and then becoming general secretary of the students' union. at 38, he's already been mp twice. and thanks to a well-planned media blitz (he's perhaps the only mp who appointed a media adviser two years ago) which sees him getting at least two requests a day for tv appearances, he's now minister of state for commerce and industry. rajiv pratap rudy, formerly rajiv pratap singh (he changed his name when he was mla in bihar because there were 10 others with the same initials), is very much the man about town, wearing his colourful kurtas — stitched by a tailor back in patna — with great aplomb to parliament, his spanking new office in udyog bhavan, and occasionally, the stuff page three is made of. it was all destiny, he says, as he sits at his shiny desk. and a lot of hard work — under the glass top of his desk is a long list of files for every occasion, with subjects varying from the prevention of terrorism ordinance (poto) to world trade organisation (wto). before every tv appearance, he's known to do a lot of homework, whether it's by talking to elders in the party (he mentions five: lk advani, arun jaitley, arun shourie, yashwant sinha and sushma swaraj) or by boning up on his reading. soon, he says, he will transfer his data on to his laptop, providing the bjp with an even more aggressive tv presence. rudy wasn't always in the bjp though. he began his political career in 1985, with chandrashekhar's janata party, contesting the assembly elections despite being underage. he polled only 2,900 votes. in 1990, at 27, he finally became an mla. within a year, he managed to pick a quarrel with former bihar chief minister laloo prasad yadav and spent the next four years as an 'unattached' mla who raised inconvenient issues such as environment and industrialisation. though he briefly flirted with the samata party in 1995 in search of a ticket for his second run as mla, he didn't get it. seizing an offer from the bjp, he left, and within the year, was elected from chhapra to parliament. he lost in 1998, through sheer arrogance but since then he's vowed to take care of his people. in 1998, he was rewarded and returned to parliament. my years in parliament have really rejuvenated me. i had become illiterate in patna, he says. but as junior minister, does he have any work? why not? i meet at least four delegations a day. you have to create work for yourself, no one will give it to you on a platter, rudy answers. in between some hectic tv studio-hopping, redoing his home, scuba diving, playing golf, and even occasionally sporting shorts at an rss shakha, he does have time to follow his nine-year-old daughter's sartorial advice. she tells me when i'm not looking good on tv. so do my friends. they tell me where i could have spoken more effectively, he states. and what about being mentioned in the tehelka tapes? yes, it did damage me, he says. which is why one has to be extra careful about the people one associates with, even at the risk of sounding haughty. i have no desire to be part of the third world glitterati. no, indeed. he's too shrewd for that.