The Hindu : National : Amar Singh apologises for advertisements

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 25, 2004

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National

Amar Singh apologises for advertisements

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW, APRIL 24. The Samajwadi Party has disowned the objectionable advertisements in a section of the Urdu newspapers in which the party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav's role in the Babri Masjid issue was praised and comparisons were made to the sacrifice at Karbala.

"The advertisements were issued either by some overenthusiastic supporter of the party or some mischief-monger," the SP general secretary, Amar Singh, said here today. Efforts were now being made to identify the source of the advertisements so that the party could clarify the position further, he said.

Addressing newspersons here, Mr. Singh said that while his party had no hand in the release of the advertisements, it was guilty of failure to monitor them in time. It came to know of the damage only after the details were pointed out by others, he said.

He offered unqualified apology on behalf of his party for the hurt caused to the minorities by the advertisements and expressed regrets for the party's failure in the monitoring.

The SP leader strongly objected to the statements by the Union Minister, George Fernandes, and the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, claiming ideological closeness between the National Democratic Alliance and the Samajwadi Party. This only showed the "disappointment and frustration" during the run-up to the elections.

Mr. Fernandes, he said, was an old socialist but had compromised on his own avowed principles. In the 1980s it was he who had raised the question of "dual membership" against the then Janata Party leaders having an affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Now the same Mr. Fernandes was pleading the case of Ram temple, he said. The SP leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, on the other hand, never compromised on secularism and refused to make common cause with communal forces.

Mr. Singh said that while he would not make harsh comments against any one during the elections, it was quite clear that the statements made by Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Fernandes had a purpose. By claiming their closeness with the SP, the NDA leaders were only trying to confuse a section of the SP supporters to help the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Replying to a question on alleged intimidation of Congress supporters in the Rae Bareli constituency by Akhilesh Singh, the local legislator, the SP leader said that Mr. Akhilesh Singh had nothing to do with the Samajwadi Party.

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