VHP demands Mulayam Singh Yadav's arrest for ordering police to fire on karsewaks in 1990

Lucknow: The VHP on Thursday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to lodge an FIR against Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav for ordering the police to open fire on karsewaks in Ayodhya in 1990 when he was the chief minister. “The Samajwadi Party founder has repeatedly claimed that he had got the security personnel to open fire on karsewaks in Ayodhya in 1990 and the Yogi Adityanath government needs to take cognisance of this statement and get him immediately arrested after lodging an FIR,” media in-charge of the VHP Sharad Sharma said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_3830267” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. PTI[/caption] He said that the family members of those devotees of Lord Ram who lost their lives in the police firing will be contacted and an appeal will be made to the Uttar Pradesh government as well as the court for lodging a case against the Samajwadi Party patron. Drawing a parallel with General Dyer, who had opened fire on innocents in the Jallianwala Bagh during British rule, Sharma said the same act of cowardice had been committed by Mulayam Singh Yadav for saving his government and increasing his vote share. He is giving the same advice to his son Akhilesh Yadav, he said. “The VHP in its three-day ‘dharam sansad’ slated for 24 to 26 November in Karnataka will, besides the Ram Janmabhumi issue, deliberate on Mulayam Singh Yadav’s acceptance for this “heinous crime,” Sharma said. During his 79th birthday celebrations in the state capital on Wednesday, Mulayam Singh Yadav had justified his order to the Uttar Pradesh police to open fire on karsewaks (volunteers), who were marching towards Ayodhya, when he was the chief minister. “Had even more people been killed for the sake of the country’s unity and integrity, the security forces would have done that,” he had stated. The former chief minister said that 28 lives were lost in the police firing at Ayodhya on 30 October, 1990. The firing had earned him the nickname of ‘Mullah Mulayam’ in the Muslim community, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the state’s population.