From firing at kar sevaks to defending rapists: The controversies courted by Mulayam Singh Yadav

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the supremo of the Samajwadi Party and three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister, died on Monday after being hospitalised for days. Fondly called “Netaji”, he spent more than 50 years in politics. There were many highs and a few lows in his career and several controversies that he courted along the way.

We take a look at when the SP chief hit headlines for unfavourable reasons.

Also read: RIP Netaji: How Mulayam Singh Yadav wrestled his way into politics and became a political icon

The guest house scandal

In 1993, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder joined hands before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was creating waves because of the Ram temple issue.

The SP-BSP combine came to power with the backing of Congress. Two years on, the government collapsed as Mayawati withdrew support and decided to go with the BJP.

On 2 June 1995, angry SP workers attacked Lucknow’s Meerabai Guest House where Mayawati was holding a meeting. The room was vandalised and she was beaten up. The BSP MLAs failed to protect their leader but BJP’s Brahm Dutt Dwivedi escorted Mayawati to safety.

This soured relationship between the two UP parties until 2018 when the SP-BSP formed an alliance and beat the BJP in the parliamentary by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

Explained: Why PM Modi praised Mulayam Singh Yadav as ‘key soldier of democracy’ during Emergency

Bullets fired at kar sevaks

When the Ram Janmabhoomi movement started gathering pace, Yadav was the chief minister of the state. On 30 October 1990, hundreds and thousands of devotees gathered in Ayodhya and the kar sevaks started moving toward the disputed site to demolish the Babri Masjid.

At first, the police lathi-charged to control the crowds and later on at the order of the government opened fire at kar sevaks, leading to the death of at least 16 people. Years later, on 6 February 2014, Yadav confessed in Mainpuri that bullets were fired on his orders.

‘Videshi’ Sonia

After the fall of the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996, MSY decided to oppose Sonia Gandhi’s candidature for prime minister He called her a “videshi” (foreigner), a stand which came back to haunt him years later. In 2002, Congress refused to back him as he was trying to form a government in Uttar Pradesh. This only worked in favour of his rival Mayawati.

The sexist comment on the Women’s Reservation Bill

Yadav was not in favour of the Women’s Reservation Bill and believed it would not help those from rural areas. “The Women’s Reservation Bill will only benefit rich and urban women. Our poor and rural women are not attractive… I will not say beyond this),” he said at a gathering in UP’s Barabanki in 2012.

Insensitive remarks on rape

Yadav triggered a storm in the run-up to the 2014 state elections when he opposed capital punishment for rape. In a defence of sex offenders at a rally in Moradabad, he said, “Ladke ladke hain, galti ho jati hai (boys will be boys, mistakes can be made).”

The veteran leader also did not hesitate to blame girls. “Ladkiyan pehle dosti karti hain. Ladke-ladki mein matbhed ho jata hai. Matbhed hone key baad usey rape ka naam dey deti hain. Ladko sey galti ho jati hai. Kya rape case mein phasi di jayegi? (First girls become friends with boys. Then, when they have differences between them, girls level rape charges. Boys commit mistakes. Will they be hanged for rape?),” according to a report in India Today.

When MSY expelled Akhilesh from the party

Toward the end of 2016, Mulayam Singh Yadav expelled his son and then CM of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh from the party for six years along with his cousin Ram Gopal. He said the decision was to save the party that he had built through hard work. The SP chief had his brother Shivpal by his side then.

However, Akhilesh put up a massive show of strength and had the support of over 200 MLAs and his backers clashed with Team Shivpal. With the situation going out of control, Mulayam revoked the expulsion.

The rift within the family continued. On 1 January 2017, Akhilesh was elevated to the post of party president; Mulayam was relegated to the role of “patron” and Shivpal was removed as the head of the state unit.

The support for Tibet

In 2017, while talking in Parliament, the SP patriarch urged the Centre to support Tibet’s independence. Without naming Jawaharlal Nehru, Yadav said the then-prime minister made a “big mistake” on the Tibet issue. Tibetan leaders like Dalai Lama had always supported India, he said.

According to Yadav, the time has come to support the independence of Tibet as it has been a traditional buffer between the two big nations and India should give maximum support to the Dalai Lama. “China is our enemy, not Pakistan. Pakistan can do us no damage,” he said.

His comments became a diplomatic nightmare for India which already has a tetchy relationship with China.

With inputs from agencies

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