In keeping with its two-decade old tradition, the Samajwadi Party, on Thursday, continued to blow hot and cold on the Mohd Azam Khan issue.
SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said the absence of Mohd Azam Khan at the party’s national executive in Agra, was not felt at the meeting on Wednesday but added that with “such behaviour, a person lowers his own stature”. “This is a national executive meeting and all prominent leaders are present here but Mr Khan was not here. It does not make any difference and his absence was not felt but either he should have come or resigned,” Prof. Yadav told reporters in Agra.
The SP national general secretary also said the party is not concerned who comes or not. “Akhilesh is chief minister and Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is the leader... there is no other bigger leader,” he said. SP national general secretary Naresh Agarwal also said no person should be given too much liberty.
“No one is bigger than the party,” he explained. Asked whether disciplinary action should be initiated against Mr Azam Khan, Mr Agarwal said that it was up to Mulayam Singh Yadav to decide the issue.
Meanwhile, even as a section of the SP leadership breathed fire on the issue, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav downplayed the issue and said: “Azam Khan can never be unhappy with me. Perhaps he had other engagements, so he could not come here. If he has any issues, we will sort them out and there is no question of any further controversy on this issue.”
Mr Yadav refused to respond to the statements made by other SP leaders on the issue.
This blow-hot-blow-cold strategy is something that has become the hallmark of the Samajwadi Party and has been used in cases of former party leaders including Amar Singh and Beni Prasad Varma in the past. A section of the party leadership levels allegations on senior leaders and Mulayam rushes in to pour cold water on it. The issue gets temporarily resolved but the angst simmers at the ground level till it is time for the final showdown.