For the first time after his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav floated Samajwadi Secular Morcha, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav joined him in paying tributes to Ram Manohar Lohia on the great socialist leader’s death anniversary in Lucknow on Friday.
The function was held at Lohia Trust, the headquarters of SSM adjacent to the Samajwadi Party state office.
Addressing a gathering, Mulayam asked people to follow the ideology of Dr Lohia, who always fought against injustice.
“Dr Lohia was a very humble person and never tried to impose his views on others. He was a simple person, used just two pairs of dress and opposed injustice wherever he saw it,” Mulayam said.
SSM founder Shivpal Yadav said that Netaji (Mulayam) had followed Dr Lohia’s ideology throughout his life.
“Dr Lohia’s ideology is for the poor and hence we have formed Samajwadi Secular Morcha for realising the dreams of the great visionary. Netaji’s blessing is with the SSM as it is working on Dr Lohia’s ideology,” Shivpal said.
At a separate programme, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav garlanded Dr Lohia’s statue at Lohia Park in Gomti Nagar and at the SP state office.
Akhilesh paid glowing tributes to the veteran socialist leader.
Addressing a meeting at the SP office, Akhilesh targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Rafale deal.
Questioning Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s France tour, Akhilesh said, “The National Democratic Alliance government must come clean on the Rafale fighter jet deal and if all is well and the government has nothing to hide, then explain the sudden tour of France by the Defence Minister.”