In the new Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh's Muslims see a saviour. This has taken his critics by complete surprise
Mother of three, Noorjahan, 32, got the shock of her life when she received a letter from her husband early last month carrying the three dreaded letters: Talaq, talaq talaq. She was staying with her father as her husband has left her in October 2016, promising to take her once he settled in Hyderabad. Instead, the letter came and her dreams were shattered in in no time. She tried to contact her husband. He took her call just once and uttered talaq thrice disconnecting. She met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a routine Janata Darbar and narrated her plight to him. Her mother accompanied her to 5, Kalidas Marg — the official residence of the Chief Minister. “Yogi ji has assured help. She has asked his officer to speak to my in-laws and husband. I am happy I met Yogi ji,” Noorjahan told this reporter outside the Chief Minister’s residence with her two- year old daughter deep in sleep in her lap.
Yogi has the image (constructed by his rivals) of being as Muslim-hater. When the BJP named him as Chief Minister, Muslims had reacted sharply. They feared that Yogi has been selected to strength the party’s Hindutva raj in Uttar Pradesh. Previously, Yogi had gone on record to say that people who are against Surya Namaskar should leave India and go to Pakistan. He was reacting to Muslims’ reservation about making Surya Namaskar compulsory in State-run schools in Madhya Pradesh.
Yogi had even reportedly declared that “if given an opportunity, I would install statues of God Ganesh in each mosque”. Adityanath, who is known for his fiery speeches, had once even advised Mulayam Singh Yadav to leave India and settle down in Pakistan for his “Muslim prem”. He spoke against love jihad and had demanded that Hindus should be given minority status in many Muslim-dominated districts of the State.
Against this background, his transformation is amazing. Muslims are now meeting him with complaints. In Yogi, Muslims see a new saviour because they believe he can protect them from social stigma.
When the State Government ordered closure of illegal slaughter houses across Uttar Pradesh, an attempt was made to give this order a communal colour as majority of these slaughter houses are being run by Muslims. Yogi reacted fast and put his machinery in place to send the message that the action had been taken as per a court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order against illegal slaughter houses. At the same time, there were words of solace for those who have a proper licence to operate. They were asked to do business, and those who did not have a licence were asked to get one from the relevant authorities.
In a short span, Yogi Adityanath has been able to win the hearts of the minority community. He is a transformed man now. The barbs are missing from his tone. He know talks about Sabka saath, sabka vikas — and even his own Hindu Yuva Vahini, the organisation notorious for attacks on Muslims in and around Gorakhpur — did not show any vigilantism when the Government ordered the ban on illegal slaughter houses. The Vahini came into existence after the 1998 election and it has influence in villages around Gorakhpur, Basti, Deoria, Azamgarh, Kushinagar and Ghazipur.
The Vahini was the Yogi’s eyes and ears. Whenever an incident took place near Gorakhpur and adjoining areas, Yogi used to reach the spot with Vahini members much before the police and district administration did. There were unproven allegations that Yogi used to run a parallel administration in the adjoining areas of Gorakhpur. Instead, he emerged as a messiah of the needy.
Birendra Singh, one of the close aides of Yogi, vouches that not only Hindus but also the Muslims approach Chotte Maharaj (as Yogi is called by his disciples) for the redressal of their problems.
“There is a wrong perception that Yogi ji is anti-Muslim. The image has been created by the media for TRPs. The Chief supervisor of this temple is Yaseen Munshi, a Muslim. Muslims get financial help from Yogi ji for getting their daughters married off. The charitable hospital of the trust he heads treats people without any bias. The gaushala is run and maintained by Muslims. All the shops selling flowers in the vicinity of Gorakhnath temple are being run by Muslims”, Singh told this writer when he had met him in the Gorakhnath temple in on February 28, during the election campaign
Some people say that despite the taunt that, “Gorakhpur mein rahna hai to Yogi, Yogi kahna hai”, Muslims even voted for for him. It is not possible to win parliamentary elections five times in a row from Gorakhpur without the support of members of this minority community, they point out. What happened during the Janata Darbar at the Gorakhnath temple is now being replicated at Chief Minister’s residence.
Yogi’s choice as Chief Minister came as a surprise. He had been dormant in Uttar Pradesh politics for many years because of his blow-hot-blow-cold relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party. But after the 2014 election when India, riding on the Modi wave, voted the BJP to a landslide victory, Yogi came to the centre-stage. Some critics questioned as to why Yogi was made a star campaigner of the party in bye-election in 2014 and Assembly elections in 2017, because he did not ‘enjoy’ mass appeal. Yogi was not among the main contenders for the Chief Minister’s post. He was handpicked by the party leadership, including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, at the last moment.
Yogi Adityanath and his team begin their innings as a whiff of fresh air on the promise of peace and tranquility, development and graft-free governance. In the backdrop of the corruption tainted ministry in the Akhilesh Yadav Government, Yogi’s clean and tough, down to earth, no-nonsense image is bound to stand the state in good stead. Critics have nothing to say against Yogi other than that he talks of Hindutva. He speaks strongly against terrorism and communalism too.
It is a fact that growth cannot take place on its own. Investment, industry and manufacturing sectors will prosper only if peace and safety prevail. There is the overwhelming hope that Yogi will be able to control crime, restore confidence and dramatically improve investment climate. This is the probably one of the reasons why Yogi Adityanath was chosen as the face of a resurgent Uttar Pradesh.