Supporting UPA government only to stop communal forces: Mulayam Singh Yadav

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav protested against the UPA government's economic policies and courted arrest, along with leaders of other political parties, but took care to stay away from a traders rally to avoid sharing the dais with BJP leaders. This despite the fact that Left parties who attended both protests showed no such compunctions.

Yadav, it seems, wanted to reinforce the point that while he opposed the government on economic policies, he would support it to keep Hindutva forces at bay. "I have said this several times that we are supporting the government only to stop communal forces (from coming to power). But we will not tolerate price rise," he said while courting arrest along with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader AB Bardhan and former prime minister and JD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda. He said if the UPA government does not roll back its recent decisions immediately as per his their demands "we will announce together a strategy to hold a big agitation". Asked whether this would lead to the emergence of a third front, he said: "What will be a bigger example than this?"

Yadav's statements were the clearest indication yet that he was hedging his bets on the which way to go, after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee pulled the rug from under the UPA government.

Yadav quite clearly does not want to jeopardise the government in the immediate aftermath of Banerjee's pull out, but is also not averse to exploring options of alternative political formations with old friends such as the Left, TDP and socialist groups. Earlier, addressing the protesters, he said: "The government has been coming out with policies after policies that affect people of this country. The biggest loser of these policies, especially diesel price hike, is farmers. Farmers have been put to lot of trouble. "We will tour the entire nation and listen to people's grievances and decide our strategy," Yadav said.