New Delhi, July 25: ‘Whenever the BJP has ruled, Muslims have not been exploited’ Wary of Congress’ efforts to woo Muslims ahead of next year’s Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav hit out at the grand old party for its “anti-Muslim policies” and said BJP was “lesser evil” when came to dealing with minorities.
Mulayam’s latest positioning is crucial as his “unimpressive show” in the 2009 Lok Sabha election was largely credited to a dent in his Muslim vote bank after he decided to shake hands with Babri mosque demolition accused and former BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.
Though not sparing the BJP either for “targetting Muslims” during 2002 Gujarat riots, Mulayam claimed that the BJP was not in a position to pose any threat to the minorities in UP because of his party’s strong base in the State.
“But the Congress is arrogant. It is not concerned about our protests. But we will tackle it,” he told the media here on Sunday. “Whenever the BJP has ruled, Muslims have not been exploited… Despite a couple of communal riots, their exploitation has been less,” Mulayam added.
Known as “Maulana Mulayam” in UP politics, the SP chief had all his guns blazing at the Congress, whose Government in Maharashtra is in news for a the death of a Muslim, who was picked up for interrogation in connection with the triple blasts in Mumbai. Faiz Usmani, the brother of an Ahmedabad blast accused Afzal Usmani, was picked up
from his residence by the Mumbai Crime Branch for questioning in connection with the July 13 triple bombings and was later rushed to hospital after he complained of uneasiness, where he died.
“They (police officials responsible for death) should be arrested immediately and the case should be probed by a high-powered team of human rights commission,” he said in a statement.
He questioned Mumbai Police’s line of investigation in serial blasts and said people of the city were “not convinced” that real culprits had been arrested. To support his charge against the Congress, the SP leader referred to a report prepared by activist Harsh Mander on the issue.
Quoting from the report, Yadav said the Congress was scared of using the term Muslim fearing BJP could exploit the issue to snatch Hindu votes from that party. He claimed that instead of disbursing funds to Muslims, the Minorities Affairs Ministry works “as an obstacle” in the process.
“Despite reports by several committees on the state of Muslims, the Congress Governments have failed to implement them. I demand the Prime Minister to provide more facilities to Muslims. It will help you get more votes and I don’t mind that,” Yadav said.
Against the backdrop of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi supporting the cause of artisans, Yadav said his party will also support any plan by the Central Government in helping the community — most of them being Muslims — so that they can earn more money by exporting their items.
When asked about Rahul Gandhi’s political plans for UP, Mulayam said he was a youth with his own “style of functioning”.
“How he works, you will come to know,” he said referring to the Assembly election due early next year. He claimed that Congress leaders in UP were only limited to TV debates and newspapers and were not present at the grassroots level.
Meanwhile, in a surprise move Mulayam openly backed his estranged colleague Amar Singh in the ‘cash-for- vote’ scam and termed his questioning by Delhi Police as “injustice”.
Promising to help Amar Singh “sail through” the crisis, the SP chief ruled out Singh’s return to the party, from which he was expelled last year.
“It is an injustice being meted out to Amar Singh. It is a conspiracy to trouble (SP Lok Sabha MP) Rewati Raman Singh and Amar Singh. He (Amar) helped Congress (during the 2008 trust vote) as Samajwadi Party voted in favour of the UPA. And now he is being questioned,” Yadav said.
“We only helped by voting in their (Congress) favour. Did we join the Government? Did Amar Singh or Rewati Singh become Ministers? Had money changed hands, I would have known about it,” a visibly upset Yadav said.
Meanwhile, claiming that his party will go alone in the UP polls, Mulayam said the Rashtriya Lok Dal leader should merge his party with Samajwadi Party.
“We will contest the election alone in UP…Ajit Singh should forgive me for saying this but he is restricted to only three districts (in UP)…He should merge his party with SP,” Yadav told the media here. Though not specifying the districts he was referring to, Yadav agreed Singh had a good hold in these districts.
The SP and the RLD were alliance partners in the UP Government in 2003. But Ajit Singh broke the alliance and contested the last Lok Sabha elections with the BJP. While the SP has 88 MLAs, the RLD has 10 MLAs in the 403-member State Assembly.
–Agencies–