The Monk who sells hate

Bhartiya Janta Party is now a more surprising house than the ‘Big Boss’ television show. With the announcement of Yogi Adityanath as 21^st chief minister of India’s most significant electoral state, the saffron party has left the nation with another wave of shocks . Interestingly disappointments knocked together in the organisation as well as in opposition parties.

The newly appointed chief minister is a five-time consecutive MP from Gorakhpur seat. The accepted monk has never wrapped himself other than saffron clad. His bigoted language and communally-charged statements have made him firebrand symbol of Hindutva politics of BJP.

The successor of Akhilesh Yadav is also presently Mahant of Gorakhnath Mutt which surprisingly was once deeply associated with the identity of Dalit and Muslim culture and was the school to propagate reformist Nathpanth ideology with no roots in politics. However, with the advent of Mahant Digvijay, one of the founder members of Hindu Mahasabha followed by his disciple Mahant Avedyanath and then his disciple Adityanath, Mutt turned into the camp of hard-hitting Hindutva politics with little or no association with the ‘GorakhVaani’ except the saffron Jogi clad.

Yogi Adityanath, in the year 1998, contested and was elected as MP on the ticket of BJP after being asked by his spiritual master and former MP Mahant Avedyanath. At the age of 26, he became the youngest MP but thoroughly denied from any important place in the organizational structure of BJP. It was the year 2012 when BJP suffered a serious setback in UP assembly poll and it was also the transition phase from Advani’s BJP to Shah-Modi combo, Adityanath found his relevance in saffron party. And within the span of five-year, he became the star campaigner in UP after Modi and Rajnath Singh and set his innings for the Chief ministerial candidate.

The fourth chief minister from BJP after Rajnath Singh is on a mission to cover each religious minority group into the fold of Hinduism, especially Muslims, and Christians. Adding to it, several times he has emphasized on his concern to work on demography and vowed, not to stop until he turns the whole of UP and India into Hindu Rashtra.

The Hindutva poster boy has numerous criminal cases against him; 3 charges related to rioting (IPC Section-147); 1 charge related to Act endangering life or personal safety of others (IPC Section-336), 1 charge related to Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object (IPC Section-149); 2 charges related to Trespassing on burial places, (IPC Section-297); and 1 charge related to criminal intimidation (IPC Section-506).He has been to jail in the year 2007 under the charge of inciting riots in Gorakhpur.

Yogi Aditynath also manages a personal army which always stands on his call. Either for rioting or for threating, Hindu YuvaVahini is the same militant group which blown up the coaches of Mumbai-Gorakhpur Godan Express in the year 2007 and was actively involved in violence in the Gau Raksha in eastern UP.

From escalating the issues like ‘Ghar Wapsi’, ‘Love Jihad’ and ‘Gau Raksha’ his all political treasury lies in inciting violence against Muslims and Christians through hate speeches. Adding to the fact Dalit has been a natural target of Upper caste incited violence.

As he occupied the chair of Chief Minister, here are some of his remarks made in public which rolled him to become ‘Hindu Hridya Samrat’ on the line of L.K Advani and Narendra Modi.

“Where there are 10-20 percent minorities, stray communal incidents take place. Where they are 20-35 percent, serious riots takes place and where they are over 35 percent there is no place for non-Muslims”  (August 2014)

“Jihad in the name of love is unacceptable and forceful conversion, marriage by duping Hindu girls, could be stopped only by a BJP ruled government. Love Jihad has become national and social problem” (September 2014)

“If given a chance, we will install statues of goddess Gauri, Ganesh, and Nandi in every mosque” (February 2015)

“Teressa was part of conspiracy Christianisation is what has led to separatist movements in parts of northeast India, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland”   June 2016)

“Exodus of people from western UP is an issue and UP could turn into Kashmir. These issues would be raised again after the elections”   (February 2017)

Politics of BJP has never been friendly and away from hate. However, soon after his announcement for CM, attempts are being taken from the party to undermine his hardliner Hindutva image to show off the agenda of ‘development’. Besides, this, the appointment of Yogi is also a card for 2019 election to take the confidence of hardline BJP cadre and supporters.

Writer is Anwarul Hoda and the work is previously published at The Companion