Attacking Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for the first time after he was expelled, Amar Singh virtually dubbed him a “green snake in the grass” for Muslims.
Mr. Amar Singh said on Thursday: “I don’t support Kalyan Singh [former BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh] ideologically, but personally feel he is better than Mulayam Singh ... At least people like Kalyan and Bal Thackeray openly attack Muslims.
“These people are less dangerous than those secular leaders, who say they are with Muslims but stab them in the back. Who is more dangerous, the enemy who is visible or the one who is like a green snake in the grass? It is for you to decide.”
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Mr. Amar Singh was addressing a symposium on the ‘Prevailing conditions in the country and Muslims’ organised by the Muslim Political Council of India here. “Mulayam Singh said he and Kalyan Singh came closer in order to consolidate the Yadav and backward community votes, thinking that even if Muslims don’t vote for the SP, the Yadav-OBC votes would far outnumber them. However, this plan backfired as Muslims left him and backward votes could not be consolidated,” Mr. Amar Singh said.
After the failure of this move, “the party leadership conveniently put the entire blame on me, as I was the dustbin of the party.”
Mr. Amar Singh said, “It was Mulayam who made Kalyan Singh’s son Rajvir SP general secretary and it was again Mulayam who, during his earlier tenure as Chief Minister, made Rajvir and Kalyan’s close associate Kusum Rai his Cabinet colleagues.”
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Describing the SP as a “Yadav Mahasabha,” Mr. Amar Singh said Mr. Mulayam Singh had given all plum posts in the district units as well as on the top rung to Yadavs and his close family associates.
“Except me and the late Janeshwar Mishra, in all key party posts, representatives of the Yadav community are sitting.” During the Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Mulayam Singh gave ticket to his close associates overlooking senior Muslim leaders.
Mr. Amar Singh said: “For some time, I don’t want to involve myself in politics. Rather I will focus my attention on speaking the truth, which is often harsh.”
“Snake reference, a general comment”
Hours after attacking Mulayam Singh, the expelled SP leader Amar Singh said his reference to a “green snake in the grass” did not allude to the party chief but was a general comment on those professing to be secular. Mr. Amar Singh said the reference was “to anybody who professes to be secular and made alliances on the basis of secular thought. It was not in the context of Mulayam.”