At first, Mulayam Singh Yadav said the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was not active in Uttar Pradesh and gave it a clean chit.

Mr. Yadav said the Ayodhya and Varanasi incidents were purely terrorist acts and the Special Task Force of the U.P. police had found no evidence of SIMI’s involvement in them. On the suspected involvement of SIMI in the Mumbai blasts, he said it was a matter for investigation.

The Chief Minister’s brother and PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said SIMI was not a terrorist organisation. Only those organisations and outfits that were found to be involved in terrorist activities should be banned.

Yeah right!!

As expected, Mulayam’s comments resulted in a huge uproar throughout the country, coming as they did right after the Mumbai blasts. So what does Mulayam do?

He feigned innocence and denied making any remarks about SIMI.

Now, with UP state assembly elections due early next year, Mulayam Singh Yadav seems to have felt the need to appease his Muslim vote-bank. So disregarding his own denial of his claims of SIMI’s innocence, Mulayam has once again started making claims of SIMI’s innocence.

Ruling out the involvement of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in recent terrorist attacks in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was responsible for the advent of the menace in the country.

SIMI’s role has not been detected in blasts in Varanasi and the Shramjevi Express and in the Ayodhya terrorist attacks, Mulayam said at a discussion in the legislative assembly…

I can’t seem to decide whether I should laugh or cry at this atrocious flip-flopping attitude! … not to mention the blatant vote-bank politics!!

And he adds…

Terming the BJP as the “mother of terrorism,” the Chief Minister said there was no terrorism in the country before the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya and held the saffron party responsible for its advent.
[emphasis mine]

Whoa!! … beat that!! I want to respond to that, but words just fail me!!

Oh by the way, Mulayam also hopes to go on a saree distribution spree to rake in female votes in the assembly polls.