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The Rediff Election Special/Akhilesh Singh

'My father Mulayam Singh and his politics'

In my 27 years of life, I have known Mulayam Singhji more as a politician than a father. He belongs to Sefai, 18km away from Etawah. My mother Malti Devi is very simple and understanding. The two had an arranged marriage. I am their only child. I don't know how long they have been married.

Dimple, my wife, belongs to a Thakur family from Uttaranchal. I met her in Lucknow and we had an inter-caste love marriage.

I don't have many memories of childhood to share with you because most of the time I lived away from home. But I remember one thing. I frequently asked Father to give me pocket expense. I used to think that Netaji [Mulayam Singh] would not remember how many times a week I was getting my pocket money. In between so many calls, so many visitors and so many public engagements, I thought, how could he remember small things?

But it was surprising that he would remember the exact amount. Even party workers adore him for his memory. He knows most of the workers by their first names.

Father eats simple food without much fuss. He buys his clothes only once a year when Gandhi Ashram, the khadi shop, gives an annual discount. I don't know anyone who travels as much as him. He is not a short-tempered person. He is very reliable and zabaan ke pakke! He never fails in his promise.

When I wanted to marry Dimple, Father gave his nod. There were so many rumours [that Akhilesh was to marry Laloo Yadav's daughter], but he allowed me to have my way. He just told me, "As you wish [tumhari marzee]!" Thanks to Amar Singhji [Samajwadi Party general secretary] and Subroto Royji [chief of the Sahara India Group], my marriage became an event to remember.

In his spare time my father takes care of our 30-40 animals and farming of our 200 bighas [a unit] of land. We grow wheat, potatoes and corn. I know farming well. We also own cold storages. Last time we had a good crop of potatoes and it was easy to make one or two crores in a season out of our cold-storage business.

Most of my life has been spent far away from my father. When I was in the sixth standard I was sent to a military school in Dholpur. Till the 12th standard I studied in UP. For a degree in engineering I went to Mysore. Later to Sydney, Australia, for my master's in environment engineering.

When I was in the 12th standard Netaji became chief minister of UP. People used to know me and recognised me as his son. When I was in Australia there were many other students from UP. We used to get the news of his role as an opposition leader. Because Laloo Yadav was displeased with my father, he missed the chance to become prime minister.

But at that time I was not very much interested in politics. Now that I have become a Member of Parliament from Kannauj [in central UP], I have got a chance to live with him. And I have observed one thing. He is a man of tremendous willpower. He knows how to get things done. During difficult times also he says, "Apna kam to ho hi jayega."

In the last assembly election, when he could not form the government, he reflected his true nature. At home, I could see that he had not accepted it as a defeat. And he was surging ahead with his agenda. When I look back, I can tell you that when he could not form the government, he didn't accept defeat. If he had lost heart then, he would have never, never reached today's stage.

After the last election, the number of visitors got drastically reduced and the media wrote that Netaji was finished. But he was not bothered. In the winter of 1999, just two days before I got nominated [for the Lok Sabha election], I was informed of Father's intention to nominate me as a candidate from Kannauj. One evening when I returned home with my wife, I came to know that my candidature had been already declared. I thought, "It's a good opportunity. Why not?"

The Kannauj seat was vacated by Netaji. It's his hometown, too. The BJP had conspired with the Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress to not allow the SP to win the election. Our local workers were sure that "Kannauj would be defeated". They said that SP could win if I was nominated as a candidate. Do you know that all our relatives live here? No one can defeat in Kannauj. Ram Manohar Lohia fought his first election from here. The constituency has a Socialist background.

It's not that I was offered a seat on a platter because I am Netaji's son. Everyone, including the media, thought that we would lose. Not a soul predicted that I would win. But I was well connected with the grassroots.

A few days back BJP workers fired at me in my constituency. We showed TV reporters the spot where the bullets had struck. When we filed a police case, they retaliated and filed another case and made me an accused under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. There were thousands of spectators. Ask any witness and that will tell you that I was trying to stop the violence. I told them this is not done, it's not fair to resort to violence. We had weapons too... Hamare pas bhi sab bandobast tha! We could have retaliated. Any one of my guys could have revolted. But I stopped them. And still I am an accused under section 307.

This time my party has taken a stern stand to not give tickets to those who are criminals in the eyes of the people. Let me request you to view the criminal records of our candidates with a different perspective. There is something called thane ki record, a report filed in the police station. That's not the crime itself.

In UP, the Congress has been most responsible for the criminalisation of politics and later the BJP. Recently, one of the BJP ministers was caught for hiding abductors. Sanjay Jhunjhunwala was abducted and his family paid ransom at the minister's house. A few weeks ago, UP's biggest mafia leaders met at a minister's home and he intervened to strike a land deal. Today, I am facing only one case under 307, but don't be surprised to find a case against me for theft and dacoity!

In this election we are going to win more than 250 seats. We are number one in UP. For the first time we are going to win some seats in western UP, which will come as a surprise to many. I have visited more than 52 districts riding a rath (chariot). For learned people and for foreign-returned people and Oxford-Cambridge graduates Netaji may not be a great orator, but villagers find him perfect.

Amitabh Bachchan, as alleged, is not here because he is a good orator. Amitabh is a Socialist. Whoever is with my father believes in him and his beliefs. Amar Singh Chacha is one such example. Amitabh is participating in blood-donation camps. He is doing good work. If people think we are taking advantage out of it in the election, so be it.

We only care for the allegations of those people who have never cheated anybody. Those who have sold Ram in the bazaar should not be believed. These people are calling Atalji Bhishma Pitamah. Rajnath Singh is Arjun and Advaniji is Bheema for them. Now the only one left is Krishna. Let them have some mercy and leave Krishna for the Yadavs!

Today, poverty is the issue in UP. We can't have any more poverty than this. Any deterioration would be called hunger. Today, youngsters are educated, but not employed. Only English-speaking students get jobs. We protest against this. We are not anti-English. But look at Germany, it is so near England. Do they teach in English? We believe that the medium of learning should be Hindi only. And English must be learned as a subject.

I can see that voters want roads, electricity and cheap medicines. Now, in UP, you cannot get votes in the name of Ram. You will have to perform. We have declared that we will give employment to the youth or give them unemployment allowance.

Are you aware of castes called Valmiki, Nai, Rathore, Paswan, Bhiliya, Jogi, Tili Tamoli, Banzara? All these castes are with us this time. We are not just MY (Muslim-Yadav) party. That's a big change this year. Roti kapda sasti hogi, davai padhai mufti hogi is our slogan.

We are asking the voters only one question: When the world has progressed so much, how come we are left far behind? Once we form the government in UP, we want to concentrate on MP and Bihar.

Since you are from a dot-com, please visit my party's Web site www.smajwadiparty.org We have got more than 50,000 hits.

As told to Sheela Bhatt

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