New Delhi, June 26: Former Misa detainee Mulayam Singh Yadav today deftly veered the discussion away from the Congress at a programme to honour those who fought the Emergency.

Usually, any discussion of the Emergency, with its suspension of basic freedoms and detentions under the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (Misa), evokes strong criticism of the Congress.

Mulayam’s shielding of the party comes at a time speculation is rife that the Samajwadi Party, with its 39 MPs, might bail the Congress-led government out if the Left withdraws support over the nuclear deal.

Hundreds of people who had participated in protests against the Emergency, imposed by Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, had come to the meeting, organised on its 33rd anniversary by Samajwadi Party MP Harikeval Prasad.

The audience burst into songs like “Jaya Prakash ka bugle baja to…(when Jaya Prakash sounded his bugle)” in memory of socialist leader and anti-Emergency icon Jaya Prakash Narayan.

But what followed was unexpected: Mulayam diverted the rhetoric towards Mayavati. “During the Emergency, there were no police reports against those close to the jailed protesters,” the Samajwadi chief said.

“But today in Uttar Pradesh, there are 11,000 FIRs, some of them with even a hundred names, and one lakh people have been trapped in police cases. There is more injustice in UP today than during the Emergency.”

Mulayam criticised the Bahujan Samaj Party government for not continuing the facilities he had announced two years ago for anti-Emergency protesters.

Mulayam and Samajwadi colleague Janeshwar Mishra, though, warned the Centre on price rise.

Sena support

The Sena today said it wasn’t averse to bailing the UPA government out if asked for its support to keep the US nuclear deal alive.

“This is a purely hypothetical scenario,” Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, asked if his party, a supporter of the deal, would back the government if the Left pulled out.

“But national interest has to be taken into account, and the Sena chief (Bal Thackeray) will take a decision if such a scenario arises tomorrow.”