Return of the Neta After being out in the cold for years, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party has romped home in Uttar Pradesh. Hindi heartland’s “Netaji” spoke to Radhika Ramaseshan days before he was back with a bang

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Return of the Neta

After being out in the cold for years, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has romped home in Uttar Pradesh. Hindi heartland's "Netaji" spoke to Radhika Ramaseshan days before he was back with a bang

Excerpts from the interview

Mulayam Singh Yadav had the mien of a person at peace with himself. Gone were the jerky reflexes visible in stressful moments as when fighting an election, the jagged attention span, the petulance on being asked an unsettling question. Days before the people of Uttar Pradesh voted him back to power, the signs of victory were all there. His face brightened when I suggested that the spotlight on his scion, Akhilesh, was perhaps a game changer for Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP). Apart from establishing the hierarchy seemingly without the mess that anotherparivar from down South, the Karunanidhis, were in, Akhilesh had attracted youths from across the caste spectrum. "You speak about Akhilesh, I will not. I am his father after all," Mulayam said. On a chopper ride across his Yadav fief in west central Uttar Pradesh, spanning the Etawah and Mainpuri regions, and later in Lucknow as we continued with the interview, Mulayam was virtually unrecognisable to someone who had followed him closely for two decades,. He was chatty, took personal questions with a smile and proffered answers even if some were a bit sanitised or disjointed. He even wanted to know what I thought of his speeches. The only traces of rancour surfaced when he spoke of the late Prime Minister V.P. Singh "betraying" him more than once. Dubbing him a "most dangerous" politician, he held Singh responsible for the break-up of the Samajwadi's alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1995, which resulted in his exit as the chief minister, and of scuppering his chance of becoming Prime Minister in 1996. At 72, the former champion wrestler no longer sprints across spaces as he used to even until the '90s. But his agility — as he hopped from one meeting to another — was commendable. Perhaps Mulayam's relaxed state of mind had something to do with the re-discovery of his Socialist moorings. As we boarded a chartered plane that was to take us to his home village Saifai near Etawah, he was accompanied by his late friend, philosopher and guide, Janeshwar Mishra's two close associates — Ashok Rai and Shankar Suhail (who is making a film on Mulayam). Mishra, who was tutored in politics by Socialist Ram Manohar Lohia, was a founder-member of the SP. He died in 2010, apparently "heart broken" at the party's "glamorisation" in the Bollywood-corporate era ushered in by Mulayam's former confidante Amar Singh. Mulayam was said to have been shattered by Mishra's death. The Samajwadi was consequently "de-toxified" with the exit of Amar Singh and Akhilesh's debut in a position of responsibility as the Uttar Pradesh party chief. Indeed, so resolved was he to keep Bollywood out of his campaign that when Jaya Bachchan phoned him just as we landed in Lakhna, asking if she could help with his campaign, he politely asked her to attend to her ailing husband Amitabh (who had undergone an abdominal surgery). Also on board was Mulayam's Man Friday of three decades, Shiv Kumar. He played nanny to his master, ministering to his every need: from offering throat soothers and water before he disembarked to giving a measure of the crowds and their response to the boss. He insisted that Mulayam caught a catnap during the longish flight and made a meal of the pooris and cauliflower sabzi packed from home. Mulayam persuaded himself to have a small portion, and then held forth on the changes that were sweeping across Uttar Pradesh. Q: Your winning strategy is still not very clear. You seem to have depended heavily on the perceived anti-Mayawati incumbency to see yourself through... A: Our party organisation is the only one that consistently fought the BSP government on the ground for five years. We fought on issues, electricity and water. We stayed connected to the ground. Akhilesh went on a jail bharo andolan (pack-the-jails agitation), following which many of his associates were thrashed by the cops. Everybody is furious with Mayawati. The upper castes, who voted the BSP, were beaten. Also, the Muslims are very wise — they wouldn't waste their votes on losers because they know who is committed to their interests and who is not.   Q: What are your priorities now? A: Law and order and justice to those who were victimised by the Mayawati government.   Q: But there's a fear that Dalits might be at the receiving end. A: That's false propaganda. Dalits will be as safe and secure as the other sections.   Q: In the run-up to the last elections, Mayawati had a clear blueprint of winning over the Brahmins, playing on the bad law and order situation. A: There were certain faults in the way we ran our government. Our cadres were a bit demotivated the last time. They are full of beans this time. The upper castes are wiser because they know the SP is the only alternative. The Congress and BJP can't defeat the BSP. As for law and order, in every meeting I addressed I emphasised that goonda-gardi (goondaism) will not be countenanced. Whoever is identified as a goonda will be branded as "Mr Goonda" and boycotted.   Q: But people still remember the infamous State Guest House incident. (In 1995, after the BSP withdrew support and Mulayam lost his majority, his activists laid siege to the guest house where Mayawati was put up and fought a pitched battle with her workers.) A: That time everybody ganged up against me. The BJP, Mayawati, Congress. But it was V.P. Singh who pulled the strings because he couldn't bear to see me continue as the chief minister. He knew the SP-BSP alliance was a formidable one. Much later when I once called on Kanshi Ram (BSP founder) when he was ailing; he ruefully said that the BJP had led Mayawati up the garden path.   Q: Everybody's talking about the "Akhilesh card". What were your reasons for propelling him centrestage? A: You won't believe it, but Akhilesh didn't want to come into politics. In 1999, he got married. All he wanted to do was to roam around and have fun. But Amar Singh and Janeshwar Mishra persuaded me to induct him into politics, saying young people were rooting for him. He fought and won his first election (a by-poll) from Kannauj.   Q: Do you miss Amar Singh? A: No. He had to break off to go ahead. I did not want to throw him out. He was not of Socialist vintage so it is not right to over-project his contributions either. He mixed with big people, industrialists, filmstars...   Q: Akhilesh is being compared with Rahul Gandhi... What is your opinion of Rahul and Priyanka Vadra? A: There is no need to compare. Rahul and Priyanka campaigned. But Indira Gandhi was Indira Gandhi. I opposed her policies, but she was very courageous. She took bold decisions. I can't say anything about Priyanka because she has never really got a chance so far. She is restricted to Rae Bareli.   Q: You were close to the Bachchans. But what do you think of Amitabh's campaign for the Modi government in Gujarat? A: Amitabh only came to our non-political programmes, he never joined our politics. Jaya's still in the SP. She wanted to campaign this time but I told her to look after Amitabh. See, Amitabh honours his relationships, which is why he probably did that campaign for Narendra Modi. He never lets down his old associates.   Q: Do you miss your wrestling days? A: It is the real sport. Sports should be an integral part of everybody's lives. Wrestling is still popular in my region but there are no training centres. Boys play cricket in the fields but cricket after all is a foreign sport. Even Akhilesh plays cricket. But I insisted that the annual mahotsav (big festival) we have in Saifai includes cricket and wrestling.   Q: What are your relations like with the Congress? A: Let me make this clear. Our support to the Congress is confined to solely keeping the BJP out (at the Centre). In Parliament, we vociferously spoke out against the UPA's corruption and unpopular policies. But I must emphasise that the Congress has never given us respect. They never invite us to UPA meetings. Sometimes we hear about all-party meetings from non-Congress sources. I once insisted that the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi meet us separately to discuss issues we wanted to raise. They listened to us but that was all.