Along with being a wily politician and a one-time accomplished wrestler, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav can also be a strict disciplinarian. He can be scathing and ruthless in his criticism even if the one at the receiving end may be a near and dear one. UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav realised this the hard way on Monday when his rather unforgiving dad, turning 76 Saturday next, delivered a punishing rap on his knuckles – publicly.
"If I were to indicate one crucial reason for our debacle in the Lok Sabha election, it is the free laptop scheme. It was responsible in a big way for the poor electoral performance of our party candidates," he said while addressing an impressive gathering at the national convention of the Samajwadi Mahila Sabha at the party head qurters here.
This is the first time that Mulayam has publicly criticised the laptop scheme.
The statement comes as a major embarrassment to UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav since the free laptop scheme was his dream project. Interestingly, the CM shelved the scheme immediately after the election results came in.
"The laptops we distributed ultimately benefited out arch rival the BJP as people heard Narendra Modi's campaign speeches on these very laptops. They got impressed, and we lost the polls," he said.
Yadav said he had always opposed the distribution of laptops to Class 12 students but Akhilesh had refused to pay heed.
Even as Mulayam made this statement, the CM's wife Dimple Yadav, also seated on the dais, fidgeted a bit, but maintained a passive facade.
In the 2012 UP Assembly election, Akhilesh had promised free laptops to the students and in the past two years, his government has distributed over 27 lakh laptops among students. Akhilesh always touted the laptop scheme as a major achievement of his government.
However, the Lok Sabha election results seem to have proved him horribly wrong. What's worse, his dad is now mercilessly needling him with I-told-you-so homilies.
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