E-Paper
Day after Mulayam Singh Yadav funeral in Saifai, Akhilesh Yadav says it seems the day has begun without the sun
Akhilesh Yadav spends the night near father’s funeral pyre in Saifai, Shivpal Yadav gives conflicting signals when asked about family unity
A visibly distraught Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav spent the night near the funeral pyre of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose mortal remains were consigned to flames in Saifai on Tuesday.
Akhilesh Yadav stood in silence, teary eyed and, at daybreak, his son Arjun and other family members joined him.
By then, the cremation was complete. His wife Dimple Yadav reached the site with other women of the household to attend rituals for peace of the departed soul.
Akhilesh Yadav sent out an emotional tweet, “Aaj pahli baar laga, bin suraj savera uga (For the first time, it seemed the day began without the sun)” with two pictures from the cremation site.
The Yadav family then went for the “shuddhi sanskar” in which Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav had their heads shaved in the courtyard of his uncle Abhay Ram’s house.
In an emotional moment for the family, Shivpal was seen comforting his nephew by putting his hands on his shoulders and Akhilesh burst into tears.
His cousin Dharmendra Yadav, who also had his head shaved as part of the rituals, wept inconsolably while meeting the workers. Akhilesh’s wife Dimple, too, was emotional while embracing the elderly women of the household.
Shivpal, who parted ways with his nephew Akhilesh and the Samajwadi Party after a bitter feud in 2016-17, was the only family member who spoke on Wednesday.
He appeared to give conflicting signals when asked about family unity after Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death.
“Right now, I am not in a condition to speak on this issue, on what I have to do or I will do; we have many rituals to perform for Netaji (Mulayam), at this time there is no question of deciding, all these will be decided at an opportune moment, he said.
On a question about divided responsibilities — Akhilesh in national politics and him looking after the state — Shivpal said, “Let us see what responsibility is given to me; this is not the time to discuss.”
“If no responsibility is bestowed, even then those who are associated with us and not getting the respect, we will bring them together,” he said.
He shared anecdotes on how Mulayam Singh Yadav used to take him to school on a bicycle. When asked about Mulayam’s legacy, he said, “Everything will be alright.”
Extolling the SP founder while speaking to reporters, Shivpal said, “Netaji was like a father to me; I never did anything in life without asking him.”
Asked about his decision to form his own party (Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections), he said ,“Anything that I did was after asking Netaji; I made my decisions on his orders.”
Asked about the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat that has fallen vacant after Mulayam’s demise, Shivpal said it was not the time to talk about this.
“Since my childhood I always served him to the best of my capabilities. Netaji worked hard for the uplift of Dalits, backwards, minorities and underprivileged. Today, he is not amongst us. Whosoever came to Netaji, he never offended anyone, he worked with them. We will all tread the path shown by him and follow his ideology,” he said.
