Singh said that hat the reference was 'for anybody who professes to be secular and made alliances on the basis of secular thought. It was not in context of Mulayam Singh Yadav'.
Expelled Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh may have repeatedly “vowed” to never speak against party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, but he could not hold himself back on Thursday.
In his first open criticism of Mulayam after the much-publicised
sack, the high-profile leader spewed venom at the SP chief, calling him a “green snake in the grass” Muslims should beware of.
Singh later said by the green snake allusion he did not mean the SP chief but “anybody who professes to be secular and made alliances on the basis of secular thought.” Amar had earlier compared the Yadav leader with right-wing hardliners such as Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and former Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Kalyan Singh.
He said Thackeray and Kalyan were better than Mulayam, since they openly attacked Muslims unlike secular leaders such as the SP president “who say they are with Muslims and then stab them in the back”. Amar, who continues to be a Rajya Sabha member, was addressing a symposium on ‘Prevailing conditions in the country and Muslims’ organised by the Muslim Political Council of India.
“I don’t support Kalyan Singh ideologically, but personally, I feel he is better than Mulayam Singh Yadav.... At least people like Kalyan Singh and Bal Thackeray openly attack Muslims. These people are less dangerous than secular leaders,” he said, adding, “Who is more dangerous? An enemy who is visible or one who is like a green snake in grass?”
Amar has been blamed by his detractors in SP for pushing Mulayam to rope in Kalyan, a former BJP leader who was UP chief minister when Babri Masjid was demolished, before last year’s Lok Sabha polls. On Thursday, he sought to shift the blame.
“Mulayam said Kalyan Singh [an OBC leader] and he came closer [before the Lok Sabha polls] to consolidate Yadav and backward community votes. The thinking was that even if Muslims don’t vote for SP, Yadav-OBC votes would ensure win for the party. However, the plan backfired as Muslims deserted him [Mulayam] and backward class votes could not be consolidated,” Amar said.
“The leadership conveniently put the entire blame on me, as I was the dustbin of the party,” he said.
“Azam Khan recently said Kalyan Singh and Mulayam have been long-time friends. He has even said Mulayam brought Kalyan’s close friend Sakshi Maharaj to Rajya Sabha,” Amar said.
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