At the peak of the Ram temple-Babri mosque movement, Mulayam Singh Yadav was hailed as the greatest champion of secularism. He has lived up to his reputation of being a saviour of the Muslims by announcing his commitment to providing reservations for them.

His firmness-the BJP calls it mercilessness-in dealing with kar sewaks in October 1990 earned him great appreciation of the Muslims. In UP at least, they have solidly backed him since, and this incidentally has been one of the major factors of the marginalisation of the Congress in the state.

A pupil of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, Yadav has consistently championed the cause of the marginalised communities. The definition of marginalisation, of course, is in tune with the Mandal ideology: that is, `all' lower and backward caste people and `all' Muslims are downtrodden, and `all' upper caste people are "elitist." And the way to redemption is reservations, and even more reservations.

Since the ideologyand the political methodology are rooted in populism, the ascendancy of Yadav in UP has been marked with a marked decline in all spheres of life and a conspicuous rise in the criminalisation of politics. Allegations have been made about his proximity with people with shady backgound. But Yadav has always brushed aside all such allegations.

A crusader for secularism and a messiah of backwards for most of the time, Yadav became an ardent nationalist by opposing the prime ministership of Sonia Gandhi a few months back on the grounds of her foreign origins.