Lucknow: Samajwadi Party stalwart Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday reiterated that he had taken the right decision by ordering firing on Ram Bhakts in 1990. “It was a question of the unity and integrity of the country and everybody knows that I would not succumb to any pressure,” he pointed out. He put forth this justification while addressing party workers during his 79th birthday celebrations, organised by Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav at the party headquarters here.
“During a debate in the Lok Sabha, the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee claimed that 56 people were killed in the Ayodhya firing against the state government’s figure of 20, but when I asked for names, he took back his words. Later, it was known that 28 people had died and the government provided all possible financial assistance to the families of the deceased,” he clarified.
The Samajwadi leader was peeved over the party’s performance in 2017 assembly polls, in which his party could muster only 47 seats.“After the Ayodhya firing, when people dubbed me ‘Hindu ka Hatyara', the party had won 105 seats, but this time the number of seats plummeted even when 90 per cent of Muslims supported the party candidates. The party leaders are solely responsible for the debacle,” he stated. (UNI)