Reviving the “dual membership” controversy that broke the Janata Party government of 1977, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav turned his sights on the BJP’s Hindutva ideology, accusing the party of being more loyal to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh than to India’s constitution.
Speaking in an Interview on February 9, he said, “Satta mein do shapath wale log baithe hai… Ab desh ki janata taya kar chuke hai ki desh mein nayi sarkaar banayenge. Ab cycle (SP’s election symbol) aur haathi (BSP’s election symbol) saath saath chalenge (Those who are in power have taken a dual oath. The socialists have decided to form a new government. And the cycle and elephant have come together for that).”
Asked why the Congress was left out of the coalition he announced with BSP leader Mayawati, Yadav denied that this was the case. “Congress is part of the coalition. When Mamata Banerjee organised an opposition rally in Bengal, all the parties were there, including the Congress.”
“Congress is a part of the UP gathbandhan too. We have left two seats for the party. UP has only 80 seats. If there were more, we could have thought of giving it more seats,” he said.
On Priyanka Gandhi’s induction as one of the Congress’s general secretary-in-charges in UP, he said, “I welcome her. Only when new people join, will politics change in the country.”
Asked whether the BSP-SP coalition would be adversely affected by the Congress fighting all seats in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh said that while the two parties in the gathbandhan were “fighting the election to stop the BJP, others were looking to use the election to build their party.”
The Janata Party was a conglomeration of various anti-Congress parties that included both the socialists and the BJP’s earlier avatar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). Its government fell when the socialists objected to BJS ministers’ dual membership of both the Janata Party and the RSS. The refusal of ministers in question – Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani – to give up their RSS affiliation led to the party’s unnatural death. The BJS then regrouped to form the BJP.
Taking a dig at the BJP’s “do shapath”, the Samajwadi Party president said, “There is no better way to understand the BJP. In UP, if there is a monkey scare, the chief minister tells you to read the Hanuman Chalisa. The chief minister also teaches you how to take a holy dip in the river. But when it comes to governance, they have no idea.”
He added that the people who have this dual loyalty are now so well-placed in the current regime that there is no check on how the “samvidhan (constitution)” is being violated. “RSS ke log aaj unche padon mein baithe hai (RSS members have occupied top positions today),” he said.
