Politics is no different from sports. You pick specialised players to form the best team, with similar homework going into both. Without the best combination, you can't become the champ. Not without Amar Singh. He's still very much one of the key players; not redundant in the least. Singh has proved his importance not only for his netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav or the Samajwadi Party, but also for other political parties. You can't possibly overlook how, when Left parties withdrew support from Congress over the India-US nuclear deal, he played his role as a saviour for UPA-I.

Amar Singh is not an individual but a character inextricable in all political parties. Such characters are 'necessary elements' for all teams in the political playfield, and every party has it, albeit with a different name.

It is a subject of debate, however, if it is an 'evil' or 'blessing' for the Indian democracy as a whole.