In Yadav family, divisions over support for Modi

The all-powerful Yadav clan and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh are clearly divided when it comes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While Samajwadi president Mulayam Singh Yadav continues to adopt a middle-of-the-road approach and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav remains largely indifferent, senior ministers Shivpal Singh Yadav and Azam Khan continue to slam the Prime Minister and his policies on various issues, including the recent one involving actor Aamir Khan.

While Mr Azam Khan has penned a letter to the actor extending his support, Mr Shivpal Yadav went a step ahead and asked the actor to come and live in UP with his family and the SP would provide full protection to him.

Ms Aparna Yadav, younger daughter-in-law of Mr Mulayam Yadav, however, chose to embarrass the elders in the family by lashing out at Aamir.

In her posts on social media, Aparna slammed the actor and said that despite essaying the roles of patriots on screen, he failed to instil patriotism in his own wife. She wrote, “It has been proved that Aamir Khan is just an actor. He played roles of patriots in his films Rang De Basanti and Mangal Pandey, but he has failed to make his wife understand about the love for country. It is our mistake that we had such high expectations from him.”

Incidentally, her post came on the same day when her uncle-in-law Shivpal Singh Yadav extended support to the actor and her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav also spoke in favour of the actor. Senior UP minister Azam Khan wrote a three-page letter to the actor supporting his statement and urging him not to leave the country.

Aparna had earlier stirred a hornet’s nest when she praised the PM and his Swachchh Bharat campaign. Her husband Prateek had also supported her in her praise for Mr Modi.