Date:13/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/13/stories/2007081356140100.htm

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Situation changing fast: Mulayam

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh on Sunday said the political situation in the country was changing fast and the change could take place before the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

Mr. Singh dubbed the nuclear agreement with the United States as dangerous and accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of misleading the country on the actual contents of the accord. He said India would have to redefine its stand on Iran, Iraq and Turkey, who had always supported the country on the Pakistan issue.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, who held his first press conference after handing over the reins of power to Mayawati in May last, said a massive rally against the India-U.S. nuclear deal would be organised by the United National Progessive Alliance (UNPA) in New Delhi in September.

Countrywide agitation

He added that the UNPA would also launch a countrywide struggle on the farmers’ issue.

Mr. Singh condemned the new agriculture policy of the Mayawati Government and said it was aimed at destroying the small and marginal farmers and petty traders. Only two per cent of the farmers would benefit from the policy measure, he said.

Mr. Singh threatened to launch a struggle on the issue and warned the Mayawati Government that if 25-lakh farmers hit the roads the policy-makers would have to run for cover.

The SP leader, who was on a self-imposed silence for six months after he lost power, said he was constrained to break his silence as the farmers’ issue was too grave and could not be ignored. He added the issue concerned the entire country.

The former Chief Minister said the farm sector policy with its emphasis on contract farming was suicidal for farmers. Similar proposals were brought thrice before him when he was the Chief Minister but he rejected them.

Stating that around one lakh farmers had committed suicide in the last seven years, Mr. Singh said that suicides had occurred only in developed States such as Maharashtra (Vidharbha region), Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

He reiterated that not a single case of farmers’ suicide due to poverty and hunger was reported from Uttar Pradesh when he was the Chief Minister.

Mr. Singh hit out at the BSP Government for allegedly lodging false cases against Samajwadi workers and derided attempts to implicate his son, Akhilesh Yadav, in an alleged gang-rape case.