A shrewd politician, Mulayam Singh early morning summoned his four Lok Sabha MPs, asking them to team up with the RJD's Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, who had given notice for releasing the caste census data.
A day after breaking ranks with Opposition and then earning praise from none but Prime Minister Narendra Modi for serving an ultimatum to Congress for disruptions in Parliament, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday did a U-turn. He not only led MPs in disruption of Lok Sabha on Tuesday, but also warned the government he would block Parliament functioning unless the government releases the findings of a vast census that collected socio-economic and caste data. He along with Rastriya Janata Dal (RJD) MPs took to the well of the House after registering protest against government for not releasing the caste-data. Yadav, however, made it clear he was steering away from issues being raked by Congress that is resignation of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje for allegedly helping Lalit Modi and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan over Vyapam issue.
Just an hour earlier, Prime Minister Modi, while addressing the last meeting of the BJP parliamentary party during the monsoon session, hailed Mulayam Singh Yadav for "understanding this conspiracy" and working to end the logjam in the House. Modi castigated the Congress leaders saying "some people" with "vested political interests" were disrupting Parliament to block economic development and thwart the country's dreams.
Parliament's monsoon session ends on Thursday; virtually no business has been transacted because of daily protests within the House.
But Yadav's decision lending moral strength to the BJP has not gone down well within his own party. Sources in his party said, that senior leaders, including his son UP chief minister Akhlesh Singh, felt that the party's appearing siding with the BJP will cost it heavily. A rejuvenated Congress had already made it clear it will take the issue of Yadav coming to the rescue of the BJP to UP and hit Yadav's image of being a champion of 'secular' causes.
A shrewd politician, Mulayam Singh early morning summoned his four Lok Sabha MPs, asking them to team up with the RJD's Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, who had given notice for releasing the caste census data. The SP supremo said his party will force the government to release the caste data by making it a public issue in the coming days in UP and Bihar.
There were already speculations that Mulayam had softened his aggressive tone against the BJP after a CBI probe began against Noida authority engineer Yadav Singh. But as sources in his party say, the SP does not want to look to be seen as having aligned with Congress, which is vying for a similar secular space in UP.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha witnessed a high drama. Some paper balls were thrown at the deputy speaker, when the government tried to hold discussions on the Lalit Modi issue on its own terms, with the open support of Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. She had rejected the adjournment motion of the Opposition in the morning to discuss the alleged help extended to fugitive IPL founder Lalit Modi by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj while allowing a discussion on a call-attention motion by BJP chief whip Arjun Ram Meghwal under rule 193 to discuss "matters arising out of Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy and other related issues."
When deputy speaker M Thambi Durai tried to start the debate on Meghwal's motion, some of the Congress MPs already agitating in the well of the House tore papers and flung them towards him. He immediately adjourned the House for 15 minutes.
The Congress alleged that the ruling BJP MPs resorted to "intimidation" of its two members in the Lok Sabha, by elbowing and pushing them during their protests in the well of the House."Two of our members, who are very polite and who never get angry, Gaurav Gogoi and Bittu (Ravneet Singh) were intimidated by the MPs of the ruling party. They tried to assault them, they elbowed them and pushed them. This is something which has happened in the House for the first time," Congress group leader Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters here after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
The BJP MPs had entered the well under the leadership of water resources minister Sadhvi Uma Bharti, with an apparent attempt to take on the Congress MPs agitating in the well with placards, but the Speaker immediately adjourned the House for 15 minutes.
Earlier, while parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu kept pursuing the Speaker to take action against the agitators and accused the Congress of running away from debate, Congress group leader Mallikarjun Kharge retaliated that his party was ready to hold discussions on the adjournment motion he had piloted but rejected by the Speaker. He accused the ruling BJP diluting it by forcing discussion under Rule 193 amounting to "discuss and disperse" instead of voting after discussion. "Why the government is afraid of voting despite having a brute majority in the House," Kharge asked.
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