From Today's Newspapers:

After SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav announced support to the UPA government on Tuesday, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati lost no time to get a prominent Shia Muslim cleric iterate the community's stand against the Indo-US nuclear-deal.

Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, after a meeting with Mayawati at her official residence, told mediapersons that the US was the biggest enemy of the Muslims throughout the world, including India, and therefore Muslims were opposed to the nuclear deal.

He said any party that supported the nuclear deal would be opposed by the community in every way, including in the coming parliamentary polls.

With the ulema politically divided throughout Uttar Pradesh, there appears to be no en bloc threat from the Muslim MPs of deserting the party leadership. Of the seven Muslim SP members in the Lok Sabha, Munawwar Hussain from Muzaffarnagar had last week revolted against the party, saying the nuclear deal was not in the interest of the country, specially the Muslim community , and therefore he would oppose the deal. But party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary claimed that the other six Muslim LS members had been in tough with the party high command and there was no ques- tion of them taking any stand oth- er than the party supremo's stated position on the issue. When asked whether he was aware of BSP supremo Mayawati's attempts to poach MPs in the wake of a certain section of the ulema hailing her stand that the nuclear deal was against the interests of the minority community, Chaud- hary said Mayawati dreamt of poaching from every party and not the SP alone but her efforts would not bring any fruits as far as the SP members were concerned. Countering BSP's efforts of try-ing to wean away SP Muslim MPs, Amar Singh on Tuesday claimed seven BSP MPs had contacted him on backing the deal.

With the Samajwadi Party's support for the deal being described as "anti-Muslim" by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mr. Mulayam Singh made it a point to have himself flanked by most of his Muslim MPs at the press conference to drive home the message that the minority community was with him in this decision.

Mr. Mulayam Singh and Mr. Amar Singh claimed that the minority community had welcomed the decision to strengthen the government's hands against communal forces.

According to Mr. Amar Singh, those forces trying to communalise the deal and claiming that the Muslims were against it were questioning the integrity of the minority community. Stating that the deal was in the national interest, he added: "Muslims are Indians first and they will support anything that is good for India."

Long live National Integration! Bharath Matha ki Jai!