SP sucking up to the boss
The Samajwadi Party (SP), the third largest grouping in the Lok Sabha, tries to maintain equal distance from the Congress and the BJP at the national level. Yet, through the just completed first year of Congress-led coalition UPA’s second consecutive term in office, the SP and Congress have displayed a growing affinity for each other.
The SP has given issue-based support to the UPA, while the latter soft-pedalled on matters important to SP’s main support base - the Other Backward Castes (OBCs). Is a tie-up in the offing? No, says party General Secretary Mohan Singh, unless the Congress changes its ways. Excerpts of an interview with B S Arun of Deccan Herald:
What’s your assessment of the first year in office of UPA-II?
We are disappointed with the performance of the UPA. Whether it is price rise, internal security, unity within the cabinet, containing terrorist activities etc, the UPA’s performance has been dismal and there has been complete mismanagement of these core issues. The UPA’s handling of internal security is of grave concern and raises several questions. The naxal problem is escalating by the day, putting a question mark on the Centre’s ability to tackle it. In the North-East, the highway linking Manipur with rest of India is closed for more than a month. There is no supply of essential commodities there. But the Centre is doing nothing about it and left the people of the region to fend for themselves.
The UPA government has failed to obtain a statement from Mumbai terror attack accused David Headley. India despatched 14 dossiers to Pakistan on the Mumbai carnage involving Pakistanis, but Islamabad made fun of us. Take the case of separate statehood for Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, the state was plunged into turmoil because of total mishandling of the issue. To top it all, the UPA ministers speak in different voices; the prime minister’s writ does not run for his ministers. UPA has failed to work as one unit.
Despite UPA’s alleged failure on all these fronts, your party did not vote against the Union budget which helped the government sail through.
We did not want to impose fresh elections on this poor country within a year of the general elections. Also, we did not want to give any scope to the right reactionaries to take advantage of the situation. Please remember that in May, 2009, SP wrote to the President that we will support this government. Don’t forget that our support is critical to UPA.
Consider this: UPA did not bring the Women’s Reservation Bill to the Lok Sabha, although it was passed in the Rajya Sabha, as SP and other parties were opposed to it; the SP did not vote against the Union budget; the UPA has all but agreed to the SP demand for a caste-based census; a tie-up between Congress and SP in the RS elections in Uttar Pradesh is in the offing; CBI cases against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav have been withdrawn. Aren’t these indications that SP is getting closer to UPA and may, perhaps, join the government at the Centre?
No, it is not possible. If UPA wants SP to give inside support (join the government), it will have to change several policies and programmes. I will cite just one example: We want the cost of the right to education to be borne by the Centre. The UPA is not agreeable to this.
Do you think parties like the PMK of Tamil Nadu, RLD of Ajit Singh in UP and PRP of actor Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh can become part of UPA?
I should not talk about other parties. They have their own political stand.
