Amar Singh with Abhishek, Aishwarya and Jaya Bachchan at an event in memory of Harivansh Rai Bachchan in November 2009. (Fotocorp)

Sept. 10: There are times when silence has the loudest voice, like when Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone is not heard for “younger brother” Amar Singh.

Four days have passed since the former Samajwadi Party general secretary has been in jail, but neither Amitabh nor Jaya Bachchan has issued any statement, tweet or written a blog mentioning him. Amitabh is very active on Twitter and he blogs too.

Amar used to sit next to the Bachchans at award shows. Some say he even had a room for himself in the actor’s bungalow Jalsa.

Sources in Delhi and Mumbai claim that Amar’s falling out with the Bachchans coincided with his falling stock in Delhi’s power corridors.

A bitter spat began when Jaya insisted on keeping her Rajya Sabha seat after Amar was expelled from the Samajwadi Party by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

In July last year, Amar lamented about his rift with the Bachchans in a blog. Sources said Jaya did not quit the party after Amar was dumped because she wanted to be renominated. But Amitabh pressured her to turn down the Samajwadi renomination offer later. After Amitabh intervened, both Jaya and Amar fell silent. Since then, the actor has never mentioned Amar, at least not at any public forum.

Amar arrived in Amitabh’s life much after Rajiv Gandhi’s death in 1991. It is believed that former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, a Thakur like Amar, brought them together.

Amar soon became the superstar’s “chhota bhai”, and also his virtual eyes and ears.

He was able to prevail upon Amitabh to let Jaya join politics by representing the Samajwadi Party. She campaigned for the Samajwadis while the actor kept swearing his antipathy for politics.

In 2004, Jaya had told a rally in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, before a by-election: “Mere devar Amar Singh sach mein Thakur hain. Jo kehte hain woh karte hain. Aap Samajwadi Party ko vote dijiye — yeh log vade aur rishte nibhana jaante hain. (My brother-in-law Amar Singh is a real Thakur. He does what he says. Please vote for the Samajwadi Party because these people know how to keep promises and relations.)”

Jaya had not just praised Amar, she had contrasted his loyalty with what she saw as the Gandhi family’s opportunism. “Jin logon ne humko rajniti mein aage badhaya, unhone beech mein hi hamara saath chhod diya. Saath tab chhoda jab hum taqleef mein the. Yeh log hamesha dhokha dete hain. (Those who brought us into politics left us mid-way. They left us when we were in a crisis. They are known to betray people.)”

It was on Rajiv Gandhi’s insistence that Amitabh had stood for the Lok Sabha election from Allahabad in 1984 and won. But in later years, the actor said his involvement in politics had been a big mistake.

When Amitabh’s father Harivansh Rai died in January 2003, Amar almost overshadowed the superstar’s younger brother Ajitabh.

That was then.

Actress Jaya Prada, one of the few in tinsel town and politics to stand by Amar, lamented that almost all who had got favours from the politician had deserted him. “He (Amar) supported Amitabh Bachchan when he was in a crisis but Bachchan is not standing by him,” she said after calling on Amar in Tihar where he is jailed in connection with the cash-for-votes scam

Jaya Bachchan supposedly told him once: “You will be very disappointed as you are more giving than any one of us (Bachchans). If you expect any intense reciprocity from us, you will be a very sad person.”

The full import of the remark may be sinking in now.