Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said that the decision to order police firing on "kar sevaks" during the Ram temple movement in Ayodhya in 1990 was a painful one, reported The Indian Express. The senior leader, however, said the stand was necessary under the circumstances to save Babri Masjid.
On Saturday, the senior leader said, "It was needed to save the religious place [Babri Masjid] and maintain faith of Muslims in the country. Even if 30 people had been killed in the firing instead of 16, I would have still not withdrawn my decision." Yadav said his decision was aimed at avoiding a situation where the Muslim community felt unsafe in the country. He said that despite all the criticism he faced for ordering the security agencies to open fire on the right-wing group workers, he had to take the call to maintain unity in society. He added that he was called names like "Manavta ka Hatyara" (killer of humanity) by the opposition parties for the police action he sanctioned.
Reacting to Singh's statement made at a book release function, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the remarks were made for political gains and with the objective to polarise communities, ANI reported. The saffron party leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, "The Samajwadi Party chief's remark is a political stunt, exercised by an unfaithful leader to polarise communities. Everyone remembers when he expressed regret over the killings, and today, he is making these type of statements for political gain."
According to Pathak, the ruling party president was trying to save his son Akhilesh Yadav's government by diverting attention from real problems in the state, such as law and order issues and pending development projects in the region.
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