NEW DELHI, January 30: Relations between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress have taken a turn for the worse with the entry of Sonia Gandhi into the political arena.Everything was hunky-dory between the two parties as long as Congress president Sitaram Kesri was calling the shots. Not any more. Sonia's entry, and her by-now famous statement seeking apology for the demolition of Babri Masjid, has changed all that.Addressing a rally on Wednesday at Moradabad, where he had gone to file his nomination papers for the Sambhal Lok Sabha seat, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav launched his most scathing attack yet on the Congress.The Congress, according to him, had embarked on a dangerous game by apologising for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. "Don't rake up the issue for narrow vote-bank politics," was his advise to the party.According to him, the entire problem would not have arisen if Rajiv Gandhi had not allowed the shilanyas to take place at the disputed site. Describing Sonia's apologyas "inopportune," he wondered how far could could her party go on by apologising for its past mistakes. In this context, he referred to the riots in Bombay and Surat and the growth of terrorism in Punjab. "Congress ko mafinaama ka bhandar lagana padega" (Congress will have to make a stock of apologies), he said.Terming the Congress apology on Babri-demolition and the denial of party ticket to then prime minister P V Narasimha as "tantamount to accepting its guilt," he felt that, by doing so, it had simultaneously exonerated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of its role in the demolition."It is the Muslims who will, in the forthcoming elections, finally decide whether they had forgiven the Congress," he felt.The SP supremo's speech took most observers by surprise. He did hit out at his traditional enemy, the BJP, but the better part of his speech was devoted to Congress-bashing.He was not alone in castigating the Congress. With the crowd cheering on and his party president nodding inagreement, SP general secretary Azam Khan too followed the same line in his speech. Observing that the Congress was responsible for sowing the seeds of communalism in the country, Khan also held it responsible for the country's plight.He pooh-poohed Sonia's statement on Babri Masjid, and wondered how could she forget the fact that it was during her husband's tenure as prime minister that the locks to the Ramjanmabhoomi Temple were opened and the shilanyas was performed subsequently.
