Coping with winds of political hostility

The Samajwadi Party revolutionized the concept of ‘Samajwad,’ as opposed to the principles of the Indian National Congress. That was why Ram Manohar Lohia opposed the functioning approach and ideology of the Congress. During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi imprisoned Mulayam Singh Yadav for 19 months.

Congress-SP relations were always sore. But after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the SP decided never to have any ties with the Congress, which was partly responsible for the December 1992 event. The SP has, however, always attempted to support the Congress at the Centre in order to strengthen the secular forces. However, the Congress has only sought to weaken the SP and its leaders. In fact, after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power in 2004 it has toughened its stand against the SP. In order to weaken the SP, the Congress has even allied with the BJP and the BSP.

During the period of SP rule in Uttar Pradesh, the UPA government at the Centre meted out a step-motherly treatment to the State by not providing enough financial support. The UPA government even tried to sabotage developmental work initiated by the State government. The setting up of the Dadri power plant in the State created a stir among Congressmen, who felt the provision of 24-hour power supply would make Mulayam Singh a hero. The UPA government did not initiate any step to supply gas to the plant. The Noida airport proposal was discarded by the UPA government. The Congress used the then Governor of Uttar Pradesh, T.V. Rajeswar, to dampen the developmental spirit of the SP. The Congress tapped my telephone line, targeted SP MP Jaya Bachchan in the office-of-profit matter, and instigated the Central Bureau of Investigation to file false cases against Mulayam Singh and his kin.

Finding that the SP’s morale was undampened by vendetta politics, it tried its last option: to dismiss the elected government and impose President’s Rule in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress could not do so because the Left offered resistance. With the Congress’ hostility towards the SP growing, the BSP got a lion’s share of seats in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

At that juncture, even as the Congress was losing its sheen to the saffron brigade in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttarakhand on the nuclear deal issue, the SP supported it. When the BJP, the BSP and the Left parties tried to send the UPA out, the SP saved the government. In return, the SP could well have bargained for up to six ministerial berths.