Obituary | Mulayam Singh Yadav: A wily, malleable and practical politician who played to his strengths

In a country where politicians make their careers on the back of oratorical skills, Mulayam Singh Yadav was anything but articulate. He was in many ways the great mumbler. But he always played to his strengths. His political conviction was crafted by enlightened self-interest. This meant his occasional dilly-dallying with arch-rivals Mayawati or the BJP came on the back of enormous political contradiction.

Yet, he kept surfing the political waves as if it was just another day at the beach.

I had occasion to meet Mulayam Singh a couple of times. I knew his “right hand” man Amar Singh very closely. And it was also interesting to meet Mulayam’s inner coterie policy confidantes like Janeshwar Mishra and Beni Prasad Verma.

It was they who kept Mulayam aka Netaji afloat in testing times. The policy-related oratory came from Janeshwar and Beni Prasad. The utterly wily Amar Singh worked on the corporate handle as well as snagging Hindi film stars to shake a leg at Netaji’s home borough Saifai in Etawah.

The Muslim catchment area was managed by Azam Khan. But the close “Man Friday” batting was done by his younger brother, Shivpal Yadav, who was another Mumbler. This equation worked as Mulayam remained in touch with his vote-bank.

A one-time teacher, farmer by lineage, and aspiring wrestler, Mulayam’s idol was his mentor, Chaudhary Charan Singh.

His Samajwadi Party survived largely due to his political cunning, willingness to play the most outrageous cards and propping up the interests of backward castes and Muslims. This was an astute mantra which cast its talismanic eye on Mulayam’s fortunes.

No wonder he became an MLA 10 times, an MP 7 times, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice, Defence Minister of the Union Cabinet once, and almost made it to the Prime Minister’s chair twice. He would have been prime minister had he not been stymied by a few other worthies of the then coalition ring.

When the United Front was about to form a government in 1996, Mulayam’s name was floated for the post of Prime Minister by a senior front leader. The BJP had 161 seats. Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as the prime minister, but his government fell in 13 days. The Congress had 141 seats but was averse to a coalition set-up.

Once the names of VP Singh and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu fell through, Left’s Harkishan Singh Surjit advocated Mulayam’s name. But Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav said no.

Elections were held again in 1999. Mulayam Singh scored a double win from Sambhal and Kannauj. But in a redux of 1996, other Yadav leaders refused to back Mulayam.

It elucidated the crab mentality. Other crabs are very averse to letting one of their own climb out of the bucket.

In 1999, when Vajpayee lost the trust vote by a solitary vote, Mulayam kept Sonia Gandhi at bay using her foreign origin tag. He decided not to support Sonia Gandhi’s famous “We have 272” remark even after assuring her of his party’s support.

I was then in a TV studio with Amar Singh by my side. He mimicked Sonia Gandhi. He insinuated she had no clue about assessing the climate of realpolitik. Amar Singh gloated, puffed his chest and was ecstatic how the rug had been ruthlessly pulled away. But life in politics is a great leveller. Years later, the same Sonia Gandhi would ignore him totally while a meeting of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was being held.

Amar Singh then told me how unwanted he felt.

Mulayam did have a problem with working out his legacy in later years. His son Akhilesh Yadav aka Tipu would want to drive the party in a modern way in the company of his wife Dimple. That left Shivpal Yadav unhappy and marginalised. Azam Khan, the Muslim vote-keeper, would feel the same pinch. An ageing and ailing Mulayam even saw his darling Tipu lose his temper at a rally.

Signs of the times were evident. Netaji found it hard to keep up with the deep fissures in his family. His second wife Sadhana Gupta (deceased) was known to exert her own pressure. Prateek Yadav, his son from the second marriage, married Anjana, who later joined the BJP.

In 2012, when the Samajwadi Party returned to power in Uttar Pradesh, he handed charge to Akhilesh. But his public statements frustrated Akhilesh no end.

The old-timers kept telling Netaji the party was going out of his control. Possibly under humongous pressure, he expelled Akhilesh Yadav in 2016, just before the crucial 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

They did patch up as blood is apparently thicker than water. Yet the Samajwadi Party was trounced.

Mulayam always believed there was a very thin line demarcating friends and enemies in politics. Given the chance he would tango with even his worst foe Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

He tied up with Mayawati in 1994 which ended in an ugly fallout in 1995. There was an attempt on Mayawati’s life at the state guest house which she blamed on Mulayam. In 2019, Akhilesh took a cue from his father and formed an alliance for the national election with Mayawati. The alliance came to be known as uniting “Bua (father’s sister)” and “Babua (affectionate term for a youngster in UP)”.

The Bua-Babua collaboration flopped. Yet, who knows when the affection would seep back.

Legend has it that Mulayam’s return to power in 2003, which extricated him from political oblivion, was due to the blessings of Vajpayee. He also kept up with Kalyan Singh when the face of Babri Masjid demolition quit BJP.

As chief minister he would be remembered for improving the delivery mechanism in the rural belt. He promoted Hindi by roping in Amitabh Bachchan and poet laureate Gopaldas Neeraj.

As an administrator, his lowest point came in 1990 when he ordered the firing on karsevaks at Ayodhya; 21 were killed. This extreme decision came when his infamous line — Ayodhya me parinda par bhi nahin maar sakta (Even birds cannot breach the security ring in Ayodhya) — came back to haunt him. The karsevaks found innovative ways to reach close to the sanctum sanctorum.

I recall that day well as I was a journalist present as an eyewitness to the firing.

Mulayam’s other lows encompassed his sexist remarks against rapists and his virulent opposition to reservation for women in Parliament. No counters could sway him.

All that lives, dies. As Mulayam Singh passes away at 82 he will be remembered as an extremely wily, malleable and practical politician. He survived the Mandal agitation, push of the Lotus when the BJP came into power, but could not keep hold of the reins of his own party in the twilight zone of his career.

Looking ahead, the Samajwadi Party would undoubtedly be steered by Akhilesh Yadav as the skipper. Where does that leave Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan?

Mulayam Singh Yadav would certainly be remembered as a front ranker among Indian politicians. But was he a great one, is the question.

The author is CEO of nnis. Views expressed are personal.

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