National   

I won’t join Cabinet: Mulayam

Mulayam Singh

LUCKNOW: The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh on Wednesday said he would not join the Manmohan Singh Government.

Reacting to speculation that some SP members would be inducted in the next Cabinet reshuffle, Mr. Singh counted himself out of the contention, indicating that the same might not apply to other leaders of the party.

Addressing a press conference here, he said he would concentrate on leading the party in next year’s Lok Sabha polls. He told party workers that as of now no discussion had been held between him and the Prime Minister on the possibility of the SP joining the government.

Expressing his anger at the Mayawati government’s decision to suspend work on the Jayaprakash Narayan International Institute and raze the four-pillared structure at the Vikramaditya Marg crossing in the city, the SP chief demanded that Chief Minister remove her statue installed at the Bahujan Prerna Kendra here. Also the “public money” used in the construction of the statue should be refunded to the State treasury from the Chief Minister’s own resources. If she failed to respond to his demand, the statue would be bulldozed when the SP returned to power, Mr. Singh warned.

Mr. Singh said putting up statues of oneself during one’s lifetime was an insult to Indian culture.

Demanding reconstruction of the four-pillared structure which commemorated the political philosophy (“Chaukhamba Raj”) of Ram Manohar Lohia, Mr. Singh said work on the JP International Centre should be restarted soon. He said his party would not tolerate moves to devalue JP and Lohia’s contributions.

The Vikramaditya Crossing structure has been razed to make way for a statue of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. Stating he was not opposed to installation of Dr. Ambedkar’s statue, Mr. Singh indicated that it could be erected elsewhere.

He alleged that land was being forcibly and illegally acquired by the State government for building structures. Stones worth crores used in construction of structures in the previous BSP regime were reportedly sold for about Rs. 30 lakh, the SP chief alleged.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Three more bombs defused in Surat
It was Sushma’s personal view: BJP
Serious charge: Congress
I won’t join Cabinet: Mulayam
“20,000 MW nuclear power by 2020 if deal gets through”
Hoax e-mail: cyber cafe owner remanded
EPFO move to ‘give’ workers’ money to private firms decried
Court fiat to doctors
Arunkumar Bhatt passes away
Power projects ‘commissioned’ only in name: internal study
Mumbai student tops PE-II exam
‘Policemen lack cutting edge to tackle terrorism’
Story had loose ends, says TV channel
Congress defends EPFO decision

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu