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    I unnecessarily slammed Yadav family: Amar Singh

    Synopsis

    "It is the large-heartedness of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had told SP members in that Amar Singh is in his 'dil' even if not in 'dal'," says Amar Singh.

    TNN
    (This story originally appeared in on Jul 15, 2016)
    Six years after an acrimonious fallout with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh has made a return to Samajwadi Party and has been named a Rajya Sabha MP. He talks to Akhilesh Kumar Singh on a range of issues, including differences among senior SP leaders. Excerpts:

    How does it feel to be back in SP? It was more of an emotional problem because I have worked in SP not as a politician but as a family member of Mulayam to the extent that even after six years, my personal rapport with Akhilesh, Shivpal and Netaji (Mulayam) remained intact.

    I was in Singapore for my treatment where Ramgopal's son Akshay came and met me. The younger generation, including Akhilesh and Akshay, have been respectful to me. I was first informed about the RS nomination by Congress's Ahmed Patel. I had no clue and asked jocularly if Rahul Gandhi had done the favour. But Patel said the SP had done so.

    It is the large-heartedness of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had told SP members in the presence of Jaya Bachchan that Amar Singh is in his 'dil' even if not in 'dal'. In fact, I admit I was unnecessarily reactionary towards the Yadav family .

    But Azam Khan expressed reservations about your RS nomination? Azam Khan is senior to me in terms of age and also in politics. I respect his views. If anyone in the party is unhappy about my return, I consider it my weakness and will try to overcome it. However, I remind you about differences between Congress' P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee who co-existed.

    SP's flip-flop on Qaumi Ekta Dal brought to fore internal differences... There is no flip-flop, the issue was blown out of proportion that a decision taken by Shivpal Yadav was shot down by Akhilesh. Flip-flop was in the way Rahul Gandhi tore up the legislation cleared by Sonia Gandhi, the PM and law minister of that time. In case of QED, MSY took the decision but withdrew it after Akhilesh's views.

    Donald Trump has accused you of bribing the Clintons for the India-US nuclear deal. It is baseless. Like Amit Shah, Trump is also known for jumlas. To the best of my knowledge, the Clintons can't accept tainted money and they have already clarified. However, let the ED take a call like summoning Hillary Clinton, questioning her and matching them with my activities. However, I accept that I lobbied for the deal at the request of President Kalam, who was close to Mulayam Singh.

    Interestingly, I have always been accused of giving and not taking money. In fact, it was me along with NKP Salve and Sharad Pawar who had drafted the current Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

    How do you assess SP government's performance? Akhilesh has done better than other CMs. However, he lacks coordination between yesterday (experience) and today (youth).

    But law and order has been an issue in UP. Law and order and goonda party allegations are often made against the Samajwadi Party and Mulayam Singh. Dacoit Man Singh's son Tehsildar Singh was BJP candidate against Mulayam in Etawah, so was Ramakant Yadav against Mulayam in Azamgarh recently. D P Yadav was BJP candidate against Shivpal. There was a billboard saying vote for D P Yadav for bhaymukt samaj. Mukhtar had supported Congress nominee Ajay Rai against Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

    I have cited examples, let people decide which is a goonda party. Media should also ask questions about Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam related deaths and rape of women during the recent Jat stir in Haryana. Senior Congress member V C Shukla and several others were killed in Chhattisgarh but no one is talking about it.


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