Mulayam’s Aurangabad camp hints at Cong tie-up

AURANGABAD, July 9: Despite having only a handful of workers in the city, the Samajwadi Party (SP) went about conducting its five-day natio...

AURANGABAD, July 9: Despite having only a handful of workers in the city, the Samajwadi Party (SP) went about conducting its five-day national training camp for party activities elaborately, giving the impression of a party that had found its roots in the area.

Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, who arrived a day earlier, on July 1, remained in the city until July 6 and could be seen at the Sant Eknath Rangmandir auditorium (named S M Joshinagar for the occasion), as were the other three Central Ministers from his party – Petroleum Minister Janeshwar Mishra, Minister for Telecommunication Beni

Prasad Verma, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs S Sherwani.

The three Ministers charged up the atmosphere when during their speeches, they gave tips on how to reach out to the grass-root level. Mulayam spoke on three occasions during the camp.

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The first of these, made on the first day of the camp, was an inspired one and stretched to two-and-a-half hours.

Most of the thousand-odd participants were party workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and a few from the southern States.

Political observers pointed out that Mulayam’s choice of Aurangabad as the venue indicates a Congress-SP tie-up. It now seems certain that Sharad Pawar has made up his mind to contest all coming elections jointly with the SP, they added.

The SP chief was greeted by all the virtual bigwigs of the State Congress during tea at the local Congress MLA, Raibhan Jadhav’s residence.

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Mulayam repeatedly mentioned the old ties Congress enjoyed with the SP as far back as 1934, and called for unity among all secular parties to fight the communal forces.

Well aware that the city comprises of almost 35 per cent Muslims, Mulayam did all he could to please them, but found himself in a difficult position when it came to declaring his party’s stand on Dalits.

The SP chief’s statements on the Dalits in connection with the reservation policy and the Atrocities Act were greeted with scepticism.He held that his party supported special opportunities for the Dalits and not special powers. His stand that he would not allow any further extension of the reservation policy for the backwards, if the abuse of the Atrocities Act continued, was repeated a bit too often at the camp. This appeared contrary to the party’s claim of bringing the backward classes on par with the rest.

It was only on the concluding day that Mulayam chose to launch a frontal attack on the Shiv Sena-BJP in the State, when he urged Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to make it publicly known how much the Enron had “bribed” to get their power project reinstated.

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Mulayam went to the extent of calling the Joshi govt “a government of nalayaks (incompetents) and badmash (goons)” and called upon his partymen to launch an agitation in the State on the Enron issue.

Surprisingly, the Shiv Sainiks present, who are known to react violently even to a mild criticism of their party, chose to remain silent.