Family

Amar Singh finally turned out – he was asking for it

Well, it finally happened. Some days after it became clear that relations between the strongman of the SP, Mulayam Singh, and his man friday, Amar Singh, were not okay, they started sniping at each other; Mulayam not directly, but through various party people, including his own brother; and Amar Singh directly. The confrontation was apparently over the position that Amar Singh had in the party, he would always have expected to be the number 2 in the party, but the family relations for Mulayam would have meant that he would have been more comfortable with his son and brother having leading positions in the party. Further, since the SP has been out of power for so long, the charm of some sort of power has also lost, and it is true that parties out of power tend to start splitting sooner. In addition, it could be very much possible that the fight between them could also be because of sharing of commercial interests.
However, after some time, the resignation of Amar Singh from the various party posts was accepted, and in a sign that the separation was final and complete, these posts were given to other people. And then it happened, soon after Amar Singh made some threatening noises about spilling secrets of his ‘netaji’ (Mulayam), he was expelled from the party along with Jaya Prada. Now, it seems that the Samajwadi Party is trying to get their Parliament seats unseated by quoting some earlier verdict.

Amar Singh separates from the the Samajwadi Party

It was an odd combination earlier, since they are 2 different people entirely. Mulayam Singh is a die-hard Samajwadi who came up in the tough world of politics, building up his power and reputation step by step, bolstered by backward class politics. On the other hand, Amar Singh is the Rajput, the wheeler-dealer, the person who was more at ease with the richer section of society, who brought in the film support to Mulayam Singh (except for Raj Babbar is more of a socialist person himself).
The combination of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh worked for a very long time, and it would be pretty clear that they know a large number of secrets of each other; however, for some time now, Amar Singh must have thought that he was indispensable to the Yadav chieftain (it is also suspected that Amar Singh would have controlled the money flow for Mulayam). But as time passed on, it was also becoming clear that Mulayam had always considered the Samajwadi Party as his personal domain, and how better to demonstrate it than bring his dynasty into politics.
Hence, over a period of time, the son, the brother, the daughter-in-law, all of them were brought into the party, and started the clash of ego. The old supported, with connections of his own would believe that he had a strong role to play in the party, while the family believed that power was only for them, and in this quest, the family always has to win. And so it has happened, with Amar Singh’s resignation from the various party posts now accepted by Mulayam and Amar Singh also finally breaking loose, with the statement that he believed the various action of Ram Gopal Yadav were sanctioned by Mulayam.
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Another one – Family kills son-in-law, allows daughter to be abused

Its horrible to read of such a case, and yet how many times do you read about such cases. Earlier, I would read about honour killings in many countries, especially in the Middle East, and wonder as to how somebody could do such a thing to a fellow human being, and especially to a close relative. And then I learned of such incidents happening in our country as well, especially in the northern rural areas of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and to some extent, in Bihar. And in many of these (including the current one), the honour is supposed to be defiled when a girl and a boy fall in love, but are of the same gotra. The belief is that if they are of the same gotra or of the same village, there will be already be a blood relationship between them, and such ‘incest’ will spoil the name of the family and also of the village. And it is these concepts that drive people to sanction murder, in many cases, brutal murder.
What does society do about this ? When people read about it in the newspaper, they consider it to be something that happens in rural areas, the ‘other’ India. Well, this case of honour killing happened in a village close to Narela, which is part of Delhi, on the outside areas. The law is very clear, such relationships are perfectly legal (and if this needed any sanction, the Supreme Court had ruled that such marriages are perfectly valid, and that people have a right to love and marry whom they choose), and the police and government institutions are supposed to protect the rights of these individuals. But how often do you see such a thing happening ?

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