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Congress campaign to cost Mulayam dear

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The Congress's newly adopted strategy to launch a frontal attack on the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav by labelling him to be hand in glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party may cost it dear.

With Mulayam already making public display of his jitteriness over what he obviously and rightly fears -- heavy depletion of his Muslim vote bank -- the Congress campaign may prove to be the last nail in his coffin.

What is worse is that far from refuting the charge, Mulayam is still going on beating around the bush whenever he is confronted with the direct query whether he has struck some tacit understanding with the BJP or not. Even as late as on Monday evening, while replying to questions in an interview to popular TV programme, the SP supreme said, "We have not yet finalised our poll alliance strategy."

He did talk about waging a war against both foreign and communal forces, making an indirect reference to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the BJP, but the message that went down the line was plain and simple -- that Mulayam was still quiet on striking a deal with BJP.

While Mulayam still remained in a dilemma over UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's word of praise for his role in what Kalyan termed as 'preventing foreign rule in India', another salvo was fired by the Congress.

UP Congress president Salman Khurshid and All India Congress Committee general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was in Lucknow last Sunday, worsened matters further for Mulayam by accusing his closest aide and SP's national spokesman Amar Singh of holding a secret meeting with BJP leader Narendra Modi at the residence of Arun Jaitley in New Delhi. Once again, Mulayam failed to issue any denial.

Amar Singh, for his part, clarified that he had simply gone to meet Jaitley where Modi happened to be present. "I do not operate at the levels of Narendra Modi. If I had to do something I would speak to Advani or Thakre," he said.

Even at a press conference convened by him on Wednesday, Mulayam remained non-committal to a pointed query about the alleged goings on between him and the BJP. His taking strong exception to questions in this connection only further aroused suspicions.

When Mulayam's attention was drawn to the fact that now it was not only the Congress but also the Bahujan Samaj Party, whose leader Mayawati had levelled the same allegation against him, he simply pleaded, "Well, I cannot make any comment on that because I have taken a vow not to even take her name in any of my public statements."

At least in the heartland of his political turf, Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam is being criticised and condemned by even that section of Muslims who had been his ardent admirers. This was despite local Lucknow papers running statements of his cronies praising the SP chief for taking a tough stand against the Congress.

Observes Hisam Siddiqui, the editor of an Urdu weekly, who until yesterday was a SP fan: "Now all that is required to hammer the last nail in the SP's coffin is a similar word of praise coming from Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and BJP chief L K Advani."

Siddiqui was totally disillusioned with the SP chief. "By opposing the formation of an alternative government under Sonia Gandhi, he had made it amply evident that he, any day, preferred a BJP government to a Congress regime at the Centre." All his vitriolic comments against communalism was being branded as 'hoax' by many of those who could not look beyond Mulayam until recently.

Interestingly, the only Muslim leader who hailed Mulayam for his act was none other than his own partyman and leader of the opposition in the UP state assembly Ahmad Hasan. Hasan's statement made headlines in papers where a few journalists still remain indebted to the former UP chief minister for having doled out his largesse from the chief minister's discretionary fund.

But Hasan's claims seemed far from ground realities. Perhaps only Muslims formally affiliated with Mulayam's party are the ones who are happy with his decision; obviously they have no choice in a one-man show party, says Fasih Ahmed, an ex-colonel. He goes on to add, "Go and ask a common Muslim who does not have any formal political association with the Samajwadi Party and you will know the anger that is simmering in his mind against Mulayam Singh Yadav."

Holding Mulayam totally responsible for throwing the nation into yet another election, Ahmed seeks to know "what right did the Opposition have to pull down a functioning government when they were not sure of an alternative." He firmly believes that Mulayam was only interested in being projected as prime minister or at least deputy prime minister to fulfil his lifetime desire; obviously since Sonia Gandhi was not willing to concede that he began lashing at the Congress and even the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had all along only supported him in the worst of times.

M Siddiqui, a motor garage owner, who had been an ardent fan of Mulayam, ever since Mulayam ordered firing on violent kar sevaks who stormed the Babri Masjid for the first time in 1990, is equally sore with Mulayam now. "What does he think? Simply by getting a statement issued that Muslims were all for him, Mulayam thinks he has the backing of the entire Muslim electorate; let there be elections and he will know his worth among Muslims."

Likewise Homa Zaidi, an educationist wonders, "What Mulayam intended to do by resorting to such tactics" She adds: "I am sure with his recent action, he stands exposed and isolated."

For Roomi Khwaja, a 30-year-old businessman in Lucknow's walled city, Mulayam had been cornering the support of Muslims by creating a BJP phobia among the members of the community. He has also been demanding their indebtedness to the Samajwadi Party, for saving their lives from the fundamentalist Sangh Parivarwallahs. What puzzles Roomi is, "How can such a person claim to be well-wisher of this community when his entire strategy was based on terrorising us?" And promptly his friend Ashraf questions, "And what harm has the BJP caused us in the 18 months that it has been in power here?"

Their impression was substantiated by a Delhi-based journalist, whose first meeting with the SP chief in Lucknow was a nightmare. The Muslim scribe recalls the taste he had of Mulayam's ire simply because he wanted to know whether he ( Mulayam) would take the party beyond the confines of Uttar Pradesh. The inherent intolerance in him was manifest in his retort, "how dare you ask me this; don't you know that I am the national president of my party which already has active units in every state of the country? Now go and write something that will be remembered by generations; write that the BJP is silent only till Samajwadi Party is around; remember, once Samajwadi Party goes, you will not be able to even freely speak, not to speak about moving freely outside."

While prominent Islamic clerics preferred not to make any comment on the stand taken by Mulayam, several others from the middle rung were candid enough to flay the SP leader for what he did. "If he really wanted communal forces out, Mulayam should have assisted the Congress rather than adopting a posture that was eventually proved beneficial for the BJP," remarked the Imam of Lucknow's well-known masjid.

The general impression was that Mulayam had thus far monopolised the Muslim support simply because the community had no alternative. A weak Congress with a passive role in the Babri Masjid demolition was no match to the might of the saffron brigade, while the Bahujan Samaj Party's repeated flirtations with the BJP were putting off, leaving Mulayam as the only one to corner the chunk of their vote bank. But now, even where the BSP was concerned, a section of the Muslims had begun to argue, at least Mayawati is better than Mulayam -- she taught the BJP a lesson of their life by laying a smart trap and ensuring the fall of the Vajpayee government.

Echoing apologies tendered by the Congress for the Ayodhya episode followed by its visible rejuvenation, nevetheless in bits pieces, had generated a new hope among Muslims, a sizeable number of them had begun to see the Congress as an alternative to the Samajwadi Party. "Congress alone has the potential to fight back the BJP at the national level; smaller parties cannot match the might of such a gigantic party like the Congress," observes Colonel Fasih Ahmed. He was quite convinced that the changing tilt would be visible when different parties meet at the hustings again.

Journalist Hisam Siddiqui feels, "Mulayam's latest gimmick of displaying prominent Muslim leader from Rampur Mohammad Azam Khan at all public meetings and press conferences in particular over the recent past will not work. Who is not aware of the neglect and sidelining of the same Azam Khan by Mulayam for over a year? And that was simply because of the SP chief's obsession for his latest man Friday Amar Singh, who despite being a new entrant, dominates over Mulayam, much to the chagrin of all those who have served the party for decades."

Political observers believe that once it was established that the Congress had the potential to keep the BJP at bay, a chunk of Muslims would happily retrace their steps to the Congress, while a smaller section would switch loyalties to the BSP, leaving Mulayam utterly high and dry.

He said the Congress and the BJP ''should merge as they have a common agenda.'' Asked why Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was praising him, he said, ''Have you forgotten that Kalyan Singh had called me 'Maulana Mulayam'? Several such invectives had been hurled at me. Ask him why he is praising me.''

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