Mulayam takes soft stand on Emergency

Speaking at the function organised by party MP Hari Kewal Prasad, the SP chief lashed out at the Mayawati Govt in UP for unleashing a “reign of terror” akin to days of the Emergency.

Continuing the suspense about his party’s emerging equations with the UPA, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday refrained from directly criticising late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi or the Congress at a function marking 33 years of the Emergency.

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People have started to forget the “atmosphere of terror” during the 19 months of Emergency and the struggles undertaken by socialists including the filing of the election petition against the “then Prime Minister”, Mulayam said.

Later, quizzed by reporters about the possibility of his party supporting the Congress and speculation about early parliamentary elections, Mulayam merely said he would answer such question after the meeting of the United National Progressive Alliance partners on July 3.

Speaking at the function organised by party MP Hari Kewal Prasad, the SP chief lashed out at the Mayawati government in UP for unleashing a “reign of terror” akin to days of the Emergency.

Senior SP leader Janeshwar Mishra, said, “When some of our friends of the Emergency started to become dangerous, we (socialists) had to take the Congress’s support.” He hastened to add: “But the Congress has ditched us occasionally.”