Roshi Bhadain is special. Never before has a political career been kept afloat on so little. When he was in government, he was the frontman for some of the most autocratic and controversial moves of the government: the BAI crash, BRITAM, the DTAA deal, establishing the Integrity Reporting Services Agency, the failed prosecution commission bill. So when he went into the opposition, his track record did not easily endear him to his fellow opposition colleagues. And so he started trading on what his previous stint at the ICAC had taught him to utilise: information –not for nothing did his rival Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo dub him ‘KGB’– or rather, the threat of revealing a cascade of insider information against the government he until recently served. 

Lots have fallen for this snake oil. First it was Xavier-Luc Duval who tried to get him on the front bench of the opposition, hoping to use Bhadain’s promised ‘revelations’. Quite a compliment for the sole MP of the hastily-assembled Reform Party. No revelations came. Then Bhadain resigned and sparked a by-election in Quatre Bornes. He started campaigning against the Metro Express. Opinion polls showed no one cared strongly either way. So Bhadain turned once again to his famous ‘revelations’, on the cusp of the by-election and he got Salim Muthy and the victims of the Super Cash Back Gold scheme to fall for it. He undertook to serve as one of their lawyers, promising that as a former insider, his revelations would help them. The fox was offering to represent the chickens. Bhadain got a photo-op but, as usual, no revelations came. He lost his seat and Muthy and the SCBG victims never heard from him again. His Reform Party then floundered for more than a year in the wilderness. If Bhadain had, or intended to release any information, one would have thought that this was the time to do it. But still nothing came.

Until the recent May Day when he got another victim, this time Laina Rawat, to fall for the old trick. He got the former heiress of the group that not so long ago he called “the greatest Ponzi” to say on video that he had nothing to do with the BAI crash and put up on screen a few cheques that he got off Facebook. Rawat got discredited for trying to push a story that a simple Google search could demolish but Bhadain used the opportunity to come back in the news and send some feelers to Navin Ramgoolam. Once again, no doubt his infamous ‘revelations’ will be part of the sales pitch.

Lots of people have tried to coax the ‘revelations’ genie out of the Bhadain-shaped bottle; but it will never come for the excellent reason that given the way he has been used and compromised by the Jugnauths, he cannot possibly say anything without simultaneously hanging himself and his political career. Something he will never do since keeping his politics alive is the only reason why he is always promising but never delivering. Whoever believes him, expecting to use his revelations, ends up looking ridiculous themselves.

Given his baggage, any party would be crazy to bring this toxic asset on board without ruining their own credibility in one fell swoop. That is Bhadain’s conundrum now, and it remains to be seen whether there are any customers left for the snake oil he is selling.

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