28 years later, the State Guest House incident is back to the fore

On April 5, President Droupadi Murmu posthumously honoured the founder-president of the Samajwadi Party, Mulayam Singh Yadav, with the Padma Vibhushan award at a grand ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. While Mulayam's son and current SP national president, Akhilesh Yadav, received the award on his behalf, back in Uttar Pradesh, there were attempts to discredit Mulayam by bringing up the 28-year-old State Guest House incident. On page 546 of her book, Mere Sangharshmay Jeevan Evam Bahujan Movement Ka Safarnama, second part, the BSP chief writes, “I wish to inform that if Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav publicly apologises to the nation for the June 2, 1995 state guest house incident, I will forgive him.” The book was published in 2006. The State Guest House incident, which occurred 24 years earlier, was brought into focus to strengthen their alliance in January 2019 when Mayawati stated that she was leaving it behind for the greater good, to which Akhilesh responded with, “Her insult will be my insult.” Further, on April 19, 2019, Mayawati and Mulayam displayed magnanimity by sharing the dais at a Mainpuri rally from where SP founder, Mulayam, was contesting his last Lok Sabha election. Mulayam is no more while his son Akhilesh, who now heads the party, was barely 22 years old when the State Guest House incident rocked the state.