In a harsh attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav mimicked him on Monday to make the point that he was a weak leader who was ignoring national security.
Addressing a meeting here on socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohias 43rd death anniversary,the SP chief,in an apparent copy of Singhs voice,said: Hum kaise kursi par aaye pata nahin,kaha gaya ki baith jao to hum baith gaye (I do not know how I came to occupy the chair of the prime minister,I was asked to sit and I occupied it).
At the same time,he praised AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhis overnight stays at Dalit villages and houses,without naming him. Lamenting that our own men have cut themselves off from villages,the SP chief said young people should reach out to villages,spending at least 20 days in a month there.
Mulayam said the PMs weakness was weakening the country. Terrorists from Pakistan are entering via the China-Nepal route and fake currency is also being pumped in,he said,but the Prime Minister is afraid of speaking.
Defence Minister A K Antony has said it is an insignificant issue. Had a leader like Lohia been alive today,the UPA government would have either collapsed or resigned from office, Mulayam said.
The SP chief flayed the media for making a big deal of the Congress leaders visits to Dalit villages while ignoring similar moves by his party. Mulayam said he had been visiting Dalit villages since 1957 and had even faced a social boycott. Recently,he had even attended a wedding in a Dalit family in Moradabad,but since we do not belong to the elite class,the media does not report it.
Besides national security,Mulayam attacked the UPA government over inflation.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is indifferent while the PM is stating that the spurt in the prices of essential commodities cannot be prevented, he said.