Take a bow, @RajatSharmaLive

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav talking to Rajat Sharma on IndiaTV

 

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Jyoti Malhotra

 

On the afternoon of Friday, September 16, as the feud between father Mulayam, son Akhilesh and uncle Shivpal Yadav threatened to rupture the Samajwadi Party, that too on the eve of the all-important Uttar Pradesh election, India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma broke the news flow with an interview with UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Live on TV, for a whole gripping hour, Akhilesh was retelling the oldest story in the world, the stuff of both history and mythology. A story of overweening ambition that the ‘Mahabharata’ tells so evocatively, a story of a child’s blind devotion for his father that ‘Prahlad’ symbolizes so effectively and the story of the evil uncle, ‘Kamsa,’ whose role is to forever misguide his brother.

“They say in English,” said Akhilesh Yadav,” that when you are at the top, it is lonely.’

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
Live: The one who is on the top, is always lonely: @yadavakhilesh #ChunavManch

 

Several TV channels – including Times Now and CNN News 18 – cut into the India TV news feed, and broadcast it as if it were their own story. In violation of media ethics, these TV channels only pasted a peremptory “Courtesy India TV”, except that there was no courtesy to India TV. No one asked before or after, no SMS message, no phone call, to say, ‘May we use parts of your story?’

But the dog-eat-dog world of news TV was being upended by the Akhilesh Yadav interview. A range of emotions raced across the face of the young chief minister as he answered why the Samajwadi Party was self-destructing and what he was doing about it.

First came the ‘Prahlad’ syndrome, the child wanting to appease the angry parent at any cost.

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
It is my responsibility as a son to accept Netaji's decision: @yadavakhilesh#ChunavManch

 

Notwithstanding the fact that Netaji, aka Mulayam Singh Yadav --- the heart and soul of the Samajwadi Party, upholder of Uttar Pradesh’s secular dharma, former chief minister of UP several times over, Member of Parliament from Azamgarh as well as Akhilesh’s father – had just stripped the son from the post of party-in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and given that particular crown to his younger brother, Shivpal Yadav, to wear.

But Akhilesh was having none of it. Dutiful son he may be, but enough was enough. So Akhilesh removed Shivpal from all four Cabinet posts that he held.

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
I felt bad (when I was removed from party chief) and you saw its effect: UP CM @yadavakhilesh on being removed as @samajwadiparty state chief #ChunavManch

 

Nor did Akhilesh Yadav shy away from answering why the family feud (“PariWar” punned several TV channels and newspapers) had started in the first place. There was an “outsider”, he admitted, which he refused to name even though it is Lucknow’s worst kept secret : Amar Singh, who had returned to the Samajwadi Party only a few months ago as well as to the Rajya Sabha, because of his old friendship with the party supremo.

But in the years that Amar Singh had been out in the cold, since he had been expelled from the party, equations in the family as well as in politics had changed. Akhilesh was now telling India TV that the good old days were definitely not going to return.

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
Netaji and me have decided that we will not let outsiders come between us: UP CM @yadavakhilesh#ChunavManch

 

Nevertheless, the dutiful son took a step back, clearly not willing to antagonize his father too much :
I say I will give back everything but then I will say I should have the authority to distribute tickets: @yadavakhilesh#ChunavManch

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  22h22 hours ago
I will even leave the CM chair, but it depends on the person asking: @yadavakhilesh on @samajwadiparty feud #ChunavManch

 

Interestingly, by Saturday afternoon, when the family feud had supposedly blown over, supporters of Akhilesh and supporters of Shivpal were on streets of Lucknow, chanting slogans of struggle (“sangharsh”) and victory (“jeet hamaari tay hai”).

In his interview the day before, the UP chief minister had dealt with that question with humour :

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
I start listening to music on headphone: @yadavakhilesh on question of slogans being raised outside Shivpal Yadav residence #ChunavManch

 

By Saturday afternoon, though, Akhilesh Yadav had returned all the posts he had taken away from his uncle two days before, with the exception of the crucial, money-making Public Works Department (PWD) portfolio. Perhaps the son, after four and a half years as chief minister of UP, was finally becoming a man. The honesty with which he spoke was searing :

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
Feud not because of me, but because of the chair I am sitting in:@yadavakhilesh #ChunavManch

 

At the India TV conclave, he had given fair warning of his changed behavior :

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  22h22 hours ago
I will give everything if someone asks me humbly:@yadavakhileshon@samajwadipartyfeud#ChunavManch

 

A couple of hours after Akhilesh Yadav left the India TV conclave, it was the Uncle’s turn at the same Conclave. Politics was being made on live TV as well as justifications offered.

Experience is vital, Akhilesh should gain some more. He should also learn a few things from me as well:Shivpal Yadav #ChunavManch

Everyone, admitted Shivpal to his INDIA TV interlocutor, has been worried about what’s happening all week. Akhilesh is my ‘bhatija’, nephew. Since he was 4 years old, till he grew up, we looked after him, me and my wife. He is like my son. And in a family, expectations come from sons. So since the son is sitting on the highest chair in UP, there is no competition. Netaji is head of the family. Everyone listens to him. Nobody dares not to listen to him.

Was that a threat or a promise? Was Shivpal so secure that Mulayam would abide by the dharma of the elder brother? Even though, the son was insisting that he would play a role in the distribution of party tickets for the coming elections? In the end, that’s what the fight was about – about patronage and power and who would be in a position to decide at the end of the day.

Shivpal Yadav was clearly indicating that his nephew didn’t have either the courage or the staying power to do either :

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  18h18 hours ago
Netajee will decide on ticket distribution: Shivpal Yadav #ChunavManch

 

Soon it would be another weekend in Uttar Pradesh. Nobody would understand the importance of the family feud more than Mulayam Singh himself, the man who built the family and the party and forged both together so as to run the state like a fief.

 

India TV ‏@indiatvnews  Sep 16
Every father & son duo faces issues. There is no rift. But there is fault of our people as well, who spoke to media: #MulayamSinghYadav

 

With UP elections around the corner – BJP party president @AmitShah also spoke to India TV later on Friday evening – the stakes cannot be higher. Shah, who won 73 seats (out of 80) for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections has been pulling out all the stops. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party is being torn apart, with many of her closest aides abandoning her. Rahul Gandhi’s Congress is hardly able to make a dent in the ocean. Only the @samajwadiparty stands between the people of UP and the BJP, and no one knows that better than Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Let the games begin.