All in the family: Mulayam's daughter-in-law to be Samajwadi's face for women in UP

Lucknow: The calls for democratising the top leadership of the Samajwadi Party after its disastrous showing in the general election have clearly fallen on deaf ears. Mulayam Singh looks determined to continue with the party as a family enterprise. It’s evident from the way he has been pushing the bahus to the centrestage after doing the same with the men in the family. Mulayam’s elder daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav – the wife of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav - is being projected as the female face of the party. The other daughter-in-law – Aparna, wife of Prateek – the SP chief’s son from his second marriage, is busy in socio-political projects indirectly linked to the party and the family. Hundreds of hoardings and banners prominently featuring Dimple went up across Lucknow announcing the Samajwadi Mahila Sabha which was conducted earlier this week. A book highlighting various schemes implemented by state government benefiting women with photograph of Dimple was circulated among women at the conference. [caption id=“attachment_1810695” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav with son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. PTI[/caption] Dimple represents Kannauj in the Lok Sabha. She had earlier contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Firozabad but lost to Raj Babbar of the Congress. Mulayam organised a befitting reply to this humiliation by ensuring that she won unopposed from Kannauj in 2012. At that time she had become the 44th person in the country and only the fourth in UP since Independence to be elected unopposed. She has also become the face of the government’s ‘1090’ helpline initiative to safeguard women against sexual harassment. She was also made the brand ambassador of the recently launched state nutrition mission. In her address, Dimple not only urged the SP women’s wing to try and get more women to join the party, but also asserted that Netaji (Mulayam) had always respected women and promoted them. She also urged people to intensify focus on educating girl children, improve child health, reduce infant mortality, and highlighted the various schemes that her husband’s government has implemented for improving women’s status in society. This is another thing that at the same meeting, senior minister Shivpal Yadav also urged women to keep a watch on their aacharan (behaviour) and demanded 50 per cent reservation for women in government jobs. Mulayam, in his address, took potshots at Narendra Modi, branding him and people of Gujarat as being “liars” and also made fun of Modi’s focus on making toilets. Remarkably, he showered praise on late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the past, however, Mulayam had been credited with having made several statements in the past that belittled women. In November 2012, while speaking at a public meeting in Barabanki adjacent to Lucknow Mulayam had said that women from rural areas could not succeed in politics “because they were not attractive.” The context was his opposition to the Bill for reservation to women. Yadav has said if the Women Reservation Bill was passed then women belonging to the affluent class would march ahead while those from the poor sections would fall behind. Earlier in 2010 also Yadav had made similar comments saying that if the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed it will fill Parliament with the kind of women who invite unwarranted attention. The Bill proposed during the UPA-2 regime proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies and was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. Besides the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United) have also expressed opposition to the Bill. In April this year, Mulayam had made the infamous statement about rape not being such a major crime as to deserve death sentence. “Boys sometimes make mistakes. It is not fair to give them the death penalty for a rape,” he had said. Dimple’s presence is designed to counter the negative impact such indiscreet remarks might have made among the masses. On the other hand, Mulayam’s younger daughter in-law Aparna Yadav has been active through her NGO Harsh and raising awareness among girls regarding their security. She advocates the use of the universal helpline ‘100’ saying a call to this number always gets picked up and the caller gets a response. On other occasions, she has praised the style of working of Modi, saying that this should be emulated. She has been specifically appreciative of the Swachchh Bharat campaign. On being quizzed on her apparent soft corner for Modi’s style of working, she says she is a part of the Yadav family and not a member of the Samajwadi Party. While it is widely believed that her utterances may be having Mulayam’s silent approval, there is no official word from either the SP or the BJP on her views.