'His biggest contribution as defence minister was to change the rules of bringing martyred soldiers' bodies home.'
With the passing away of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday, October 10, an era in Indian politics has ended.
You may like or hate his style of politics, but there is no denying that Mulayam Singh halted the Bharatiya Janata Party's march in his native Uttar Pradesh soon after the Babri Masjid demolition.
A follower of Socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia, Mulayam Singh till his final days fought the BJP tooth and nail.
"No other leader gave opportunities in politics to the helpless and powerless people the way Mulayam Singh Yadav did," Dr Sunil Yogi, a close associate of the late leader, who authored One More Dr Lohia: Mulayam Singh Yadav, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.
I came in touch with him when he was the defence minister of India in 1996 in the United Front government.
What I liked about him was the respect he gave to Hindi writers like me. There are very few politicians who are servants of the Hindi language, and Mulayam Singh Yadav was one of them.
He always emphasised the usage of regional languages (over English). He gave dignity to the literary giants of Hindi as well as regional language scholars, which no other leader did at that time.
He was a down to earth politician. I noticed that while travelling, if he was comfortable staying at the government circuit house, then he also had no qualms if he had to sleep in the open.
He always interacted with the common people on his tours and listened to their grievances, which is a rare quality in today's politicians. It will take very long for any politician to rise to his stature.
His biggest contribution as defence minister was to change the rules of bringing martyred soldiers' bodies home.
The rule was that only the uniform of the martyred soldier would arrive at his residence instead of the martyred soldier's body.
This rule Mulayam Singh changed overnight after he became defence minister.
He also ensured that the national honour would be accorded to the martyred soldier by placing a wreath and draping the national flag on his coffin.
One of the criticisms that Mulayam Singh had to face was that he started caste politics in India, and it is unfortunate because it is the way politics is played in our country
It was not his fault because what happens in our country is that when a leader rises in stature, people from his caste or religion automatically woo him.
Sadly, this is the face of Indian politics and every politician falls for it.
And if you want to survive in politics as a politician, then you have to have your vote bank. But you cannot say that Mulayam Singh never promoted people from other castes besides the Yadav community.
The Samajwadi Party had leaders like Janeshwar Mishra or for that matter Amar Singh who were not from the Yadav caste and they played an important role in the party. There is a long list of such leaders.
I never got a chance to speak to him about why he gave orders to the Uttar Pradesh police to open fire at the karsevaks when they had gone to perform shilanyas at the Babri Masjid site in the 1990s. But I guess there are times in life when some decisions are made, and we as common citizens have no idea why those decisions were made.
My guess is that he must have come under the influence from his circle of friends to make that decision, but then this is my guess as my talks with him were mostly about Hindi literature and poetry.
Personally, I feel Mulayam Singh did not take a good decision by telling the police to fire on the karsevaks.
When you see his overall work, you will find that he changed the lives of the backward castes, Dalits and other backwards in Uttar Pradesh.
He empowered them by giving them MLA and MP tickets. This changed their stature and the way politics was done in Uttar Pradesh.
He always gave justice to people who did not get justice from the system.
No other leader gave opportunities in politics to the helpless and powerless people the way Mulayam Singh Yadav did.
