Etawah:
Phoolan Devi was a rare victim of torture, insult and injustice, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Saturday.
He also reminded about the role of his father’s late Mulayam Singh Yadav, who played pre-dacoits to the corridors of power in the national capital.
Speaking on the unveiling of a statue of BR Ambedkar here, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Not only the revolutionary, there was a time when the best bandits were from here. They had their own stories. Some people of that generation, who are still alive, have seen them coming on horses.” He said, “Our friends are taking the name of Phoolan Devi. Phoolan Devi had a different history. Perhaps (or) in the history of the world, no woman would have to face so much torture, insults and injustice, she has done.” Akhilesh Yadav, the director of Fulatu Devi biopic Dasyu Rani, and his uncle, who was with him, asked the filmmaker that he was asked to mention Mulayam’s name at the end of the film.
Akhilesh Yadav recalled his uncle to Shekhar Kapoor and said, “Why did you not mention the names of Netaji (Mulayam) and ‘Samajwari’.
He said that it was the then Mulayam Singh Sarkar which withdrew the cases involved in the Behmai massacre against Phoolan Devi and other dacoits.
Akhilesh Yadav said, “The status of the dacoits for surrender was that he was released from jail. Everyone was freed leaving Phoolan Devi. Therefore, Netaji withdrew the cases against her.”
Phoolan Devi, who later turned to politics with her gang members, was accused of killing 20 people belonging to the Thakur community on 14 February 1981 in Behmai village of Kanpur Dehat.
She was elected from the Samajwadi Party from Mirzapur Lok Sabha constituency in 1996 and 1999.
Phoolan Devi was shot dead outside her MP bungalow in Delhi on 25 July 2001.
The Chief Minister of East Uttar Pradesh said, “The people of Etawah and Auraiya are highly revolutionary. And why should they not be? Where (river) Chambal flows in the surrounding area, and where we can see the ravines. I don’t think this is standing like this.”
He also mentioned Alan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress and the Collector of Etawah, when the first war of Indian independence broke out in 1857.
“And history is a witness that AO Hume ran for him when the revolutionary came to him,” he said.
“History also states that when he left India, he not only withdrawn his belongings, but also withdrew the birds of the country in 5,000 wooden boxes. They built a museum of birds,” Yadav said.
According to the Etawah administration, “The city was an important center of the revolt of 1857 (Alan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress was then District Collector).” Yadav also mentioned Dalit voters in this region by mentioning the patriarch of Kanshi Ram, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, which had won before the constituency.
“These were voters of this place who sent the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party Kanshi Ram to the Lok Sabha. He was unable to win from any seat. It has been recorded in history that he was Netaji and Samajwadi, who launched a campaign for Kanshi Ram ji.”
Kanshi Ram was elected as a Lok Sabha MP from Etawah in 1991 on a BSP ticket.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
