Strange are the ways of the governments! It is very difficult to understand why, at all, the Padma Vibhushan was announced for the late Mulayam Singh Yadav. There is hardly any contribution, which can be attributed to him to the country. He held many important offices but to the best of our understanding, he has never been known for any innovation or development in the country, cohesion or harmony in the society. It does not mean that awardees in the past were all worthies and deserving. There have been many Padma Awardees in the past, who have been abominably undeserving. However, if it is conferred on some politicians, people dissect them with a microscopic lens.
The only qualification that went in favour of Shri Yadav was that he was a pseudo-Samajwadi. He lived and behaved like a feudal lord. In fact, the general impression about Samajwadis is that they are double-faced. Deception and ditching are inherent to their nature. They will say one thing and do another, which will mostly be contrary to each other. There is no dearth of Samajwadis who will talk about dedication and simplicity but in real life, they are most possessive and ostentatious.
There is one old journalist in UP, who has been very close to Mulayam Singh Yadav, who would swear by socialism but would adopt all nasty and nefarious tactics to collect money. To grab the membership of some committees and commissions, he would pose to be a trade unionist but would not show even a trace of any work or struggle for the cause of the working class. The wonder of all wonders is this trade unionist will not work to save the job of any fellow worker but would assiduously play all dirty games to throw his colleague out of his job.
So much so, he would make all-out efforts and gimmicks to see that another worker becomes jobless. It is because of these traits; he has now become the most hated person, and everybody wants him to keep him at arm’s length. When he turns hostile to anybody, he stoops very low to adopt the most devious methods to harm him. It is a different matter that this imbecile is absolutely incapable of harming anybody because all his schemes and designs boomerang on him. Shockingly, his soul never pricks him even at this old age for what he does.
In the same way, Mulayam Singh Yadav had no qualms of conscience or regrets for what he had done against Karsevaks at Ayodhya or for that matter the protestors at Rampur or other places waging the struggle for Uttarakhand. But why the BJP government incentivise this double-faced, double speak socialist is hard to understand.