Attacking Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for the first time after being expelled from the party, Amar Singh on Thursday virtually dubbed him as a "green snake in the grass" for Muslims.
"I don't support Kalyan Singh ideologically, but personally feel he is better than Mulayam Singh Yadav... At least people like Kalyan and Bal Thackeray openly attack Muslims. These people are less dangerous than those secular leaders, who say they are with Muslims but stab them in their back. Who is more dangerous, the enemy who is visible or the one who is like a green snake in the grass. It is for you to decide," Singh said.
The expelled SP leader, who was addressing a symposium organised by Muslim Political Council of India, used the opportunity to vent his ire against the SP chief.
"Mulayam Singh Yadav said he and Kalyan Singh came closer in order to consolidate Yadav and backward community votes, thinking that even if Muslims don't vote for SP, the Yadav-OBC votes would far outnumber them. However this plan of his backfired as Muslims left him and backward votes could not be consolidated," he said.
Singh added that after the failure of this move, "the party leadership conveniently put the entire blame on me, as I was the dustbin of the party". Singh said, "It was Yadav who made Kalyan Singh's son Rajvir SP general secretary and it was again Mulayam who during his earlier tenure as UP Chief Minister had made Rajvir and Kalyan's close associate Kusum Rai, his cabinet colleagues.”
Describing SP as a "Yadav Mahasabha", Amar Singh said Mulayam Singh Yadav has given all plum posts in the party's district units as well as in its top rung to Yadavs and his close family associates.
"Except for me and the late Janeshwar Mishra, on all the key party posts, representatives of Yadav community are sitting. SP is a Yadav Mahasabha," he said, adding Mulayam Singh Yadav gave tickets to his close associates during the last Lok Sabha elections instead of senior SP Muslim leaders.
Singh said, "For some time I don't want to involve myself in politics. Rather I will only focus my attention on speaking the truth, which is often harsh."
Singh said since he was free now, "I would like to know whether Mulayam Singh Yadav would make somebody from the minority community UP Chief Minister." He said, "If given the opportunity, I will seek equal rights for backward castes, OBCs and Muslims. Muslims should have unity of vision."
The expelled SP leader said that despite being treated as "dustbin" of SP, he has been a loyal "secret keeper". "I have been long time guard of the party's political secrets. Is it a crime to keep these secrets to oneself. I will never reveal them and therefore I am suffering from within and feeling guilty about it," he said, adding though he has been silent, another expelled leader Azam Khan was not so.
"Azam Khan has recently said Kalyan Singh and Mulayam have been long time friends. He has even said Mulayam brought Kalyan's close friend Sakshi Maharaj to Rajya Sabha," Singh said. PTI
