New Delhi: Attacking Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for the first time after being expelled from the party, Amar Singh today virtually dubbed him as a "green snake in the grass" for Muslims.
"I don't support Kalyan Singh ideologically, but personally feel he is better than Mulayam Singh Yadav... At least people like Kalyan and Bal Thackeray openly attack
Muslims.
"These people are less dangerous than those secular leaders, who say they are with Muslims but stab them in their back. Who is more dangerous, the enemy who is visible or the one who is like a green snake in the grass. It is for you to decide," Singh said.
The expelled SP leader, who was addressing a symposium on 'Prevailing Conditions in the Country and Muslims' organised by Muslim Political Council of India, used the
opportunity to vent his ire against the SP chief.
"Mulayam Singh Yadav said he and Kalyan Singh came closer in order to consolidate Yadav and backward community votes, thinking that even if Muslims don't vote for SP, the Yadav-OBC votes would far outnumber them. However this plan of his backfired as Muslims left him and backward votes could not be consolidated," he said.
The former SP spokesman added that after the failure of this move, "The party leadership conveniently put the entire blame on me, as I was the dustbin of the party".
Singh said, "It was Yadav who made Kalyan Singh's son Rajvir SP general secretary and it was again Mulayam who during his earlier tenure as UP Chief Minister had made Rajvir and Kalyan's close associate Kusum Rai, his cabinet colleagues".
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 11, 2010, 16:41