Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ‘communal Modi’ card 

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav is wasting his time and energy by using the communal card to stem the Bharatiya Janata Party's and Mr Narendra Modi's rising popularity in Uttar Pradesh. Rattled by the reality that the ground is slipping from under the Samajwadi Party's feet as the lok Sabha election draws near, Mr Yadav is desperately hoping that the worn-out tactic of scaring away voters from Mr Modi and the BJP by the scarecrow of a ‘divisive and communal' Modi, will work. This explains his remark at a speech in Varanasi recently that his party will not allow Uttar Pradesh to become ‘another Gujarat’. While his reference was obviously to the unfortunate violence that rocked Gujarat in 2002 — for which, Mr Yadav, like many other ‘secular' people, hold Mr Modi responsible, although there is not a shred of legal evidence to back the claim — the BJP's prime ministerial candidate deftly turned the phrase around and mocked the Samajwadi Party supremo by retorting that Mr Yadav and his party did not have it in them to turn Uttar Pradesh into the model of development that Gujarat is. Mr Yadav is on extremely weak grounds when it comes to a comparison of the growth and prosperity between the two States, just as his party is on slippery grounds when governance in Uttar Pradesh and in Gujarat are pitted against each other.

It's an argument that Mr Yadav lost even before it began. The reason why the Samajwadi Party supremo took a jibe at Mr Modi by playing on the supposed fears of the minority community in Uttar Pradesh has more to do with the Samajwadi Party's loosening grip over the Muslim voters in the State. Ever since the party assumed power in the State, and more so in the aftermath of the Muzaffarnagar violence and the botched up administrative measures at the relief camps for the victims of the violence, it has done nothing beyond providing lip service to the welfare of the minority community. Several prominent Muslim clerics have openly spoken out against the party and the State Government headed by Mr Akhilesh Yadav, with some of them advising the voters to reject the Samajwadi Party. In other words, the party faces the threat of the minority community shifting its loyalty and of being left behind the BJP in the hustings.

Strangely, even grassroots political leaders like the senior Yadav are either unable to or refuse to grasp the reality that the voters have come a long way since 2002. That ghost has been exploited umpteen times by Mr Modi's rivals, and with little success. This should have alerted his opponents to give up on the issue and talk of development and good governance. If they have not been doing that, it's because they are scared of discussing matters on which their track record is questionable. But the people, as the poll survey trends indicate, are determined to make Mr Yadav and his ilk face the moment of truth.