Even death cannot destroy two things — the soul and memory. Memories emerge from the kritya (acts) of a person. Mulayam Singh Yadav will live on in the hearts and minds of people through his political acts.
Mulayam Singh, popularly known as Netaji, was the typical zameeni neta (grass roots-level leader). In the early years of his political career in Uttar Pradesh, he would go from village to village, sleep in khet- khaliyans and often eat lai-chana. The matti (soil) was a running theme throughout his life. He grew up in the soil of the akhada as a wrestler and then planted his politics in the soil itself and, for his entire political life, tried to speak for the backward, marginalised and minority groups.
During the 1960s and 70s, when Lohiaite politics was trying to rupture the Nehruvian dominance, there were several “chhote Lohias or apne Lohias” at the local level. As a disciple of Ram Manohar Lohia, Mulayam emerged as a leader in those days. He demanded a 60 per cent share (hissedari) for the Backward communities in development projects and state opportunities. Mulayam worked for the achievement of socialist ideals. He also emerged as a non-Congress peasant leader and worked hard to divert the peasantry from Congress. He battled the Emergency and was in prison for many months. These struggles made him a towering leader in UP.
After Lohia’s demise, Mulayam worked with Chaudhary Charan Singh in UP to fight for the causes of peasants. These political struggles made him the leader of middle and landless peasants. The Backward social groups (Yadavs and other OBCs), middle socio-economic groups, and peasants emerged as the political base for Mulayam’s politics in the 1980s. He was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times.
The Ramjanmabhoomi movement was one of his toughest challenges as CM. The firing on Ramjanmabhoomi activists saw several people die. But by protecting the Babri mosque, he became a hero among UP’s Muslims, which yielded electoral dividends. This period saw the Muslims shift from the Congress to the Samajwadi Party. It is clear how, over time, Netaji built a political base by forging a social coalition of the marginalised – based on caste, socioeconomic status and minorities.
As Mulayam was busy carving out the political topography of the SP, he observed the emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party under Kanshi Ram. He was able to understand the power of this Dalit -Bahujan politics and took the initiative to forge an alliance between the Dalits and Bahujan social groups in UP. The SP-BSP alliance formed the government under his leadership in 1993.
Mulayam had the great human quality of loyalty and his compassion influenced his politics as well as the national political scene. As Union defence minister, his stand on independent Tibet created controversy. He reiterated the old Samajwadi stand on Tibet.
For all his successes, Netaji also saw some setbacks. While the firing at Ramjanmabhoomi activists did bring him support from some sections, it was also criticised for not being in line with Mulayam’s political style. He was, after all, the master of negotiation and communication. Similarly, the firing at people agitating for the creation of Uttarakhand in 1994 during his tenure as CM marks a failure of dialogue.
Another major setback was breaking the alliance with BSP in 1995, and the infamous “guesthouse kand” in which Mayawati was attacked by SP activists. This incident created a far-reaching impact and led to the political chasm between Dalits and OBCs in UP. As a result, it strengthened the BJP.
The SP, a party he built with his blood sweat and tears, has been mired by family feuds and succession woes. The disillusionment among his brothers due to the political positions taken by Akhilesh Yadav weakened the party and resulted in the division of its mass base created by Mulayam. Netaji’s prolonged illness meant that he could not provide the time to resolve these family tensions. He remained for many months on the “sir shaiyya” (bed of painful arrows) like Bhisma Pitamah in the Mahabharata, watching the changing political scene helplessly.
UP politics is now in a new phase, a saffron-hued political culture that is being dominated by Yogi Adityanath, who is projecting an image of popular Hindutva combined with development. At this crucial juncture, opposition politics is not as strong as it once was. In this scenario, a leader like Mulayam Singh Yadav is deeply relevant. Someone who created a model that made it possible to evolve a politics of the people from the grass roots, soil (matti) and lai chana, rather than Twitter-dominated cyber politics.
The writer is professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad
