Expelled Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh on Tuesday launched a massive political attack on SP leader Azam Khan and blamed him for the 2013 communal riots in Muzaffarnagar during the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh. Amar Singh said that he would support the BJP in the 2019 lok Sabha polls.
“Azam Khan is the adopted son of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Azam Khan is solely responsible for the worst-ever communal riots in Muzaffarnagar which were more heinous then the post Godhara riots in Gujarat’’, said Amar Singh at a press conference on Tuesday. He added: “If Mulayam Singh Yadav will patronise a despicable person like Azam Khan, it will only lead to communal riots like Muzaffarnagar.” He alleged that at the time when the people of Muzaffarnagar were facing the brunt of riots, then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was enjoying the music and dance at his native town Saifai in Etawah.
Amar Singh retaliated against Azam Khan following the interview given by the latter to a TV channel. Azam Khan had said: “When people like Amar Singh will be publicly lynched, his wife beaten up and his two daughters are bathed in acid, they will mend their ways.”
Continuing his tirade, Amar Singh said after the SP leader’s statement, his daughters were scared to even to go to school. He disclosed that he would meet the Governor on Wednesday to demand security. “SP is not Samajwadi Party, it’s now a namazwadi party,” he quipped. “Akhilesh Yadav calls me as uncle, so my daughters are sisters and this is the gift a Samajwadi Party leader on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan,” said Amar Singh.
The former SP leader urged the UP Governor and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that the UP government should take over the private Jauhar University in Rampur promoted by Azam Khan and his wife.
The former SP leader also berated the SP president Akhilesh Yadav for his announcement to construct a Vishnu temple. “How can a namazwadi party can construct a Hindu templeij” he questioned. He reiterated: “I am with the BJP for 2019 and will be with them with all my might.” He also announced that on August 30 he would visit Rampur, the native place of Azam Khan, to give him a reply.
Asked about his association with Shivpal Yadav, uncle of Akhilesh Yadav, the former SP leader said that he had set up a meeting between Shivpal Yadav with top BJP leaders, but it did not take place. He said Shivpal Singh skipped the scheduled meeting.
“I have spoken to top BJP leaders for Shivpal. The time of meeting was also fixed but he did not turn up. Now, I have no political responsibility for him. I am not in touch with him,” he said. When pressed for details, Amar Singh said that Shivpal Yadav lived nearby. “You can talk to him,” he added. Yadav has made clear that he is unhappy over being “ignored” since Akhilesh Yadav, his nephew and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son, took over as SP president.
Yadav had recently said he was “still waiting for some responsibility” to be assigned to him by the Samajwadi Party (SP) as he could not remain “neglected” for long and would have to decide his course of action.