What happened in Lucknow today exposed the intricacies of the biggest political family in Uttar Pradesh. The aim was like a palace coup against Akhilesh Yadav in which the father became a prisoner of his past and ‘greatness’ who saw virtual humiliation of his son Akhilesh Yadav. Have you seen any one attempting a coup against a son who one chooses to carry on the legacy. Whatever discussed in public in Today’s meeting was a well planned drama to force Akhilesh quit and plant Mulayam Singh Yadav again as chief minister.
Mulayam Singh’s public humiliation of his son, who is a public person and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh will not go down well with the public. If he try to become chief minister or plant any one else, it will boomrang on him. Akhilesh Yadav did the right thing but he need to assert more powerfully. There is nothing beneficial in saying, ‘you are my guru’. Making Mulayam your Guru will be disastrous for Akhilesh Yadav. He needs to unlearn from Mulayam as the politics of the patriarch is nothing but adjustments and muscle power. The time has changed now and the new polity can not run on old caste mathematics alone. The chief minister of a state has to prove and work. Fortunately, Akhilesh did not have any baggage of that type which we normally have. He has done some good work but he was not allowed by Shiv Pal Singh and company. Akhilesh has the good will of the people and it is he who will be mascot for the new generational party and not Mulayam and Shivpal who stand exposed today.
Mulayam’s admittance that he cant listen anything against Amar Singh and that latter saved him from going to jail suggest the clout of Amar Singh on Mulayam Singh. Does Amar have ‘secrets’ of Mulayam ? Who is Amar Singh to save Mulayam ? What kind of the things does Amar do to protect people ? May be some one can file case in the court to find out as how has Amar saved Mulayam from going to jail.
Frankly speaking, all this talk was poor in taste. Here is a man who aspire to become prime minister of the country, calls himself the leader of masses, spend 18 months in jail and now virtually allowing himself to be blackmailed by a person who no political party want to deal with and who remain a persona-non-grata for them. How can a person who claim to be inheritor of Lohia’s legacy fear going to jail if that is for good cause.
If Mulayam wanted a rapprochement between his son and brother, then he should have called a meeting at his home and spoken unambiguously but calling a public meeting in full public gaze and then insulting his son, who is not merely his son but the chief minister of India’s largest state, is highly irresponsible and insulting. The state is not your jagir that you can do anything and get away with it. Mulayam must come out of this mindset that he can treat people that way. Will the bureaucrats follow the instructions of the Chief Minister or not ? How does it look when father says to his chief minister son that ‘tumhari aukat kya hai” and you are not even equal to his ‘paon kee jooti’? How does it look when a minister in the cabinet till a few days back and now president of the party in state say to his chief minister that he was lying. If this meet was called to publicly humiliate Akhilesh Yadav then Mulayam has only exposed himself and shown that he became victim of the palace intrigue that used to happen in old feudal royal families when different siblings used to fight for power.
Today’s meeting reflected that there was no place for Akhilesh in Mulayam’s scheme of things. If he were to remain chief minister, he has to be at their mercy and a paper tiger. Akhilesh has to decide whether he want to be prisoner of a corrupt and discredited family or want to explore the new horizons as he has age and his own achievement to show. He might not gain at the moment as the party and its leadership has been thoroughly discredited and exposed. Any vote to Samajwadi Party will be dangerous at the moment as you dont know which direction party goes unless Akhilesh Yadav spells out his priorities and ideological positions for future.
Long back, Mulayam Singh became an icon when he joined hand with late Kansi Ram but the gap widened between them. There was a permanent distance between SP and BSP. Today, we are at the crossroads and the Hindutva’s forces are happiest today when they see an important party weakening in Uttar Pradesh. Can Akhilesh decide to support BSP and Mayawati as chief Minister for next election. If that happens, we will see an emergence of powerful Bahujan movement in the country which we have waited since the friendship broke. If Akhilesh comes out of the shadow of his family, build the party, forge right alliances and take a decisive action today, he will go down in history as a statesman leader who saved India from going to fascist forces who want UP at any cost ? At the moment, the BJP is enjoying the family fight in Lucknow. We know well that the division in Samajwadi party may not necessarily benefit BSP unless its leadership take a decision.
Akhilesh Yadav has everything to gain in the coming days if he start a new innings to build his party. It is difficult decision but as his father has said clearly that he is not going to declare him as CM candidate. That Amar Singh is a great person who protected him going from jail and Mulayam can not leave Shiv Pal who called him liar, it is upto him to decide.
Akhilesh has good will which his father and uncle do not enjoy at the moment. They have finished their innings and they can only survive through manipulations. it is time to assert, decide and act as tomorrow it would be too late do do anything.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: [email protected]