Mobile phone is dangerous, keep off it unless it’s necessary, says Mulayam

Lucknow: In an era when more and more public services and facilities are being offered as mobile application (or apps) for wider reach to the people for their use, the president of the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav has cautioned people in general to stay away from the mobile phone, terming it “dangerous.” Speaking at a function to release a book written by the daughter of an IAS officer accused in the NRHM scam in Lucknow recently, Mulayam cautioned his party leaders, women, girls and the people in general, to use mobile phones only when it was “very necessary”. He said the mobile phone conversation could always be recorded and later misused. [caption id=“attachment_2500406” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mulayam Singh Yadav. PTI[/caption] He went on to say that he was specifically telling this to girls and women, to beware of this gadget as “a lot of indecent things” happen due to this instrument. The book on orphaned children has been written by the daughter of Pradeep Shukla, who was accused and then jailed in the NRHM scam and is currently out on bail serving as a Principal Secretary to the government. Mulayam’s statement gains significance in the backdrop of the allegation by an IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, currently under suspension, that the SP president had threatened him on phone in July. Mulayam alluded to this connection by saying that he himself had landed in a trouble due to the use of the mobile phone. “Once I said something on the mobile phone and the conversation was recorded… It is good that the India is developing and technology like computer also growing. But mobile phone— it’s a dangerous instrument,” he said. He also added that he did not use mobile phone unless it was unavoidable. “If somebody calls me on the mobile then I snub that person and ask him what prevents him from calling on the land line? One may call me on the mobile phone if I am away from home in a field in the village.” The SP and its leaders have in the past too been particularly piqued at these gadgets. On 23 October senior minister Mohammad Azam Khan had blamed smart phones for the rise in crime against women. Referring to recent incidents in Delhi where two toddlers were raped and assaulted, Azam Khan had said pornographic material is easily accessible over smartphone to people even in villages which are ruining the growth of children and youth. Last year Mulayam had even laid the blame on computers and laptops for his party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election. He had said that he had cautioned his son Akhilesh not to distribute laptops to students, but these were distributed, “and Modi had cleverly put his photos and speeches on the laptop,” he had said. Although later he had also said at a function in the Press Club in Lucknow that the social media had its own uses and should be properly utilized. Later, reacting to Mulayam’s statement, Amitabh Thakur said that the mobile phone was a “wonderful” instrument that had brought the people of the world closer to each other. “Only those people need to be scared of it who use it for wrong or unlawful purposes. If we use it for the right purpose then why should we be scared?” he asked. Amitabh Thakur and his wife Nutan have been alleging that the SP government has been hounding them ever since Nutan filed a complaint related to illegal mining against the mining minister Gayatri Prajapati. Amitabh has also filed a complaint that Mulayam had threatened Amitabh on telephone during a conversation on July 10. The police had initially failed to register even a complaint but later lodged it after Thakur moved court. Although the Hazratganj police in Lucknow has filed the final report in this case, the court has asked Thakur to present his arguments on November 19. The Uttar Pradesh government has introduced several mobile apps including those for police assistance and tourism information, and these are quite widely used as well. The offices of the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary have been highly active on the social media, and all government decisions are routinely and speedily flashed on social media.