Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Saturday that nobody shows him any respect now, and hoped that he will be honoured after his death. He added that even freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia had said that India has a tradition of honouring people only after they die, Jansatta reported on Sunday.

Yadav made the remarks while speaking to Samajwadi Party workers in Lucknow, at an event to celebrate the birthday of party leader Bhagwati Singh. Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had replaced him as the party leader before the 2017 Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, commenting on an event to immerse the ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Kuano river in Basti district on Saturday, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan said he was ready to die immediately if similar respect would be accorded to him, ANI reported. Speaking to reporters, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal Yadav claimed that he was waiting to be assigned a “responsible position” in his party for the last year and a half.