Mulayam accuses PM of insulting his party

Releasing his party manifesto, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav accused the PM of 'insulting' his party which had saved the UPA Govt from being voted out of power over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of 'overlooking and insulting' his party which had saved the UPA government from being voted out of power over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

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"We saved you from resigning. Just think once what have you given us in return ... You overlooked us and at times even insulted us," Yadav said while releasing the party manifesto in Lucknow.

The SP chief said the prime minister has now said that he was ready to resign if the nuclear deal did not go through.

Singh had on Friday said that he would have resigned if the Indo-US civil nuclear deal had not gone through.

The SP leader promised to tackle issues of terrorism, economic recession and unemployment if voted to power.

"We have addressed some important issues including how to tackle terrorism and economic recession and plight of the farmers in brief," Yadav said.

He said there were three important issues including that of agriculture, which have been addressed by the party in its manifesto.

"Gandhiji used to say that agriculture is like a god for a hungry man which except SP other political parties have forgotten. Without promoting agriculture, the country cannot progress," he said.

The SP supremo said that while security of international boundaries will be the priority of his party, the SP will also make efforts to maintain harmonious relations with neighbouring countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"We have always made efforts and will continue with its endeavour of maintaining good relations with the neighbouring countries. Till the time boundaries exist, terrorism cannot be rooted out. The party is against the concept of boundaries," he said.

On unemployment, the SP supremo said that the problem cannot be tackled only by providing government jobs. "The only solution to the problem of unemployment is setting up cottage and small and medium scale industries," he said.

Mulayam said that though there was some impact of global meltdown on the Indian economy, but economic recession could have been avoided in the country.