Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday celebrated his 75th birthday in royal style when he rode a buggy specially brought from England for the occasion, even as the party’s senior leader Azam Khan courted a major controversy over funding with his tongue-in-cheek jibe at the media that the celebration was funded by the Taliban and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.
Rampur, which was the venue of the birthday bash, saw an extraordinary exhibition of pomp and glitter. All the main roads in the city were decked up with festoons, banners, coloured balloons and twinkling fairy lights in the green and red colours of the party flag. Over 200 gates and welcome arches were set up and the road from the airport to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University was freshly painted. Students from over a dozen schools danced to the beat of drums and occasionally shouted “long live Mulayam Singh Yadav.”
To ensure participation of these children in the function, the district administration declared a holiday for schools in Rampur.“Party workers wanted to celebrate Mulayam Singh’s birthday with fanfare. After all it is his 75th birthday. The main function is being held in Rampur, while party workers will celebrate the day as ‘Samta Diwas’ all across Uttar Pradesh on Saturday,” said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
The Victorian buggy specially-imported from England added a majestic touch to the extravagant celebrations. All eyes were on the buggy as Mulayam, his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam’s younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, Speaker of State Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey and Azam Khan squeezed into the vehicle and waived at ecstatic party supporters.
According to sources, initially Mulayam was reluctant to ride in the buggy but was persuaded to do so in the end by Akhilesh and Azam Khan. “This buggy has been brought especially for you,” Azam Khan was heard telling Mulayam, who then hesitantly climbed into it and began waving to the crowd that promptly went crazy with happiness.
As the buggy rolled on, a cavalcade of 40 cars of Ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav Government followed the horse carriage. In all, 43 out of 56 Ministers in the UP Cabinet, were in attendance in Rampur. This year’s birthday celebrations reminded people of Mayawati’s over the top birthday bashes as a 75-feet high cake weighing 400 kg was prepared for the occasion and over 400 kgs of flowers were used to deck up the main pandal, which is estimated to have cost a whopping Rs1 crore.
Eyebrows were raised at the scale of the celebrations as earlier, the SP supremo’s birthday used to be a low-key affair with the party holding meetings and workers distributing fruits and sweets among patients in district hospitals.
Repeated questions about the source of funding for the lavish bash irked Azam Khan who told the media sarcastically: “The Taliban gave funds, so did Dawood and Abu Salem.”
In fact, Khan was so irritated by the persistent queries from media that he banned the entry of media persons to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University where the cultural programmes will be held on Saturday.A delighted Opposition got a stick to beat Azam Khan with because of his caustic remarks. BJP State spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that such statements reveal the frustration of SP leaders and there was an effort to cover up the Government’s gross misuse of funds by bullying the media.
“Mulayam should reveal why he is celebrating on such a grand scale and whether he has ceased to be a socialist leader or a disciple of lohia,’ he asked.
However, this was not the only controversy surrounding the SP leader’s birthday as, Mulayam’s brother Ram Gopal Yadav has preferred to skip the function. He will, however attend a blood donation camp in Firozabad on Saturday. Mulayam’s younger son Prateek and daughter-in-law Aparna, too, have avoided the Rampur bash. Family insiders say that Prateek and Aparna are in Dubai.