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Lucknow: The Congress
is stunned, at the Samajwadi Party's claims last week that it had
been arm-twisted by the Congress through the CBI. This sudden turn
in the Samajwadi Party's stance comes soon after the SP bailed the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre
out in parliament, during voting on the decision to allow 51
percent foreign equity in retail trade.
The Samajwadi Party clearly appears to sharpen its knives against
the Congress. But the the question remains: Will it strike?
On Sunday, the party's official spokesman Rajendra Chowdhary, also
a close aide of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, issued a written
statement, accusing the Congress of using the "CBI to browbeat its
political opponents" into supporting it on FDI in multi-brand
retail and the quota in promotions bill.
The SP spokesman's statement that the Congress was earlier
"hatching a conspiracy to trap the SP supremo in the CBI net for
not extending support on the FDI and quota in promotions bill",
many say, was just an expression of anger over the Congress's
dalliance with arch rival Mayawati.
Party insiders believe that while the Netaji, as Mulayam Singh is
popularly called by his supporters, was forced to play the saviour
of the Manmohan Singh government, if the past is anything to go
by, he might just "pull a fast one" on the UPA soon.
"See, it is so clear that the Congress and the SP have no common
ground. The two co-exist because both now have compulsions that
push them together. But that may not stay that way for long," a
senior SP leader told IANS, indicating that the party saw a "clear
cut" anti-incumbency wave against the Congress.
A minister in Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's government said that
the charges levelled by Rajendra Chowdhary of "political
blackmail" by the Congress could not have been made without a nod
from the party leadership.
The minister said that while the party was accommodative to the
extent of helping the "Manmohan Singh government sail through its
full five-year term," if the SP's home turf was affected, or if
its Other Backward Classes vote bank was endangered, "Netaji would
be happy to pull the rug from under the Congress's feet".
Mulayam Singh himself Saturday hinted at "growing unrest" between
the two parties when in his parliamentary constituency, Mainpuri,
he spoke of "reconsidering support to the UPA" if the quota in
promotions bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha.
Talking to IANS later, Mulayam Singh said it was not about
politics but fairness.
"There is a concerted effort to divide society and reap dividends.
That is a dangerous game. We will not allow it to happen," he
said.
Mulayam Singh's former wrestler self was evident in the muscular
statements the party supremo made: "Hamara poora prayaas rahega ki
is vighatankari aur vivadaspad bill ko paas na hone diya jaye (We
will put all our might to ensure that this divisive and
controversial bill is not passed)."
Akhilesh Yadav, on his part, Sunday said that his party was
opposed to both the FDI in multi-brand retail and the quota in
promotion bill. He said the opposition would be relentless, and
the party would continue to oppose the quota in promotions bill
tooth and nail.
But given the frequent flip-flops of the SP in its relations with
the Congress, no one is willing to bet on whether the SP would
snap ties with the ruling dispensation in Delhi.
Vijay Bahadur Pathak, state spokesman of the BJP, said the
statement of the SP viz a viz the misuse of the CBI has only
validated what its leaders have been saying all along.
"During the FDI debate in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, our
party leaders had spoken of FDI vs CBI, hinting at pressure
tactics by the UPA government, forcing SP and Bahujan Samaj Party
leaders and other regional satraps into lending their support,
threatened with facing heat from the CBI otherwise in cases of
possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income,"
Pathak said.
He added, however, that there was really no telling, despite it
all, whether the SP would pull out the "political oxygen" it was
giving the UPA.
The state leadership of the ruling Samajwadi Party has refused to
engage in discussion of its differences with the Congress.
The official line is that the matter is being deftly handled by
party supremo Mulayam Singh and his brother Ram Gopal Yadav.
There are leaders who privately admit, though, that prospects for
electoral gain were being squandered by the Samajwadi Party
because it was playing a saviour to the United Progressive
Alliance.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
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