Joining the wave of protests triggered by Shiv Sena leader Suersh Prabhu and Adani group chairman Gautam Adani against the Wharton India Economic Forum’s decision to withdraw their invitation to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to deliver their keynote address is none other than Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Yadav, who has been vocal in expressing his dissatisfaction with the ruling UPA government, ratcheted it up further by ‘walking out’ of the Wharton forum. “Yaar, this is totally unfair. Wharton is totally unsympathetic to a common man like Modi who was worked his way up without benefiting from any nepotism and has invited people like Milind Deora, thereby encouraging dynastic rule!” Mulayam told The Unreal Times political correspondent, Rajniti Sarkarwala about his decision to walk out.
“We at the Samajwadi Party are totally with the aam aadmi and do not believe in …err …sorry. Actually, what I meant to say was it is totally bad and unbecoming of Wharton to invite Modi, raise hopes and then do a U-turr ..no no no ..actually …Aaargh! Whatever yaar! The Samajwadi Party is going to walk out of this forum! Rajniti, the CBI is calling me for some reason. I’ll call you back,” he went on to say.
However, an hour later, the Yadav strong man affected a volte-face, telling Rajniti, “Yaar, I’ve thought about it and actually it makes sense – Wharton is absolutely right in snubbing a communal person like Modi and floating a secular panel. The SP will support this panel just to keep communal folks out. So I will be attending it after all.”
Yadav’s hopes were soon crushed, however, when Rajniti told him, “Mulayamji, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but you were never really invited to the forum in the first place.” A few seconds of awkward silence ensued, following which Yadav mumbled, “Acha! Haha! Hahaha! Sorry yaar. I just walked out of this one by sheer force of habit.”