Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – A Bane or Boon?

There are  two divergent views – whether founded or unfounded – woven around  Yogi Adityanath ever since he entered politics at the very young age of 26 as MP. Majority of Hindus had seen in him as Their Savior, while Muslims had viewed Yogi as the most despicable  Satan. There are some amongst Hindus and Muslims who do not treat him either Savior or Satan, but, a Simple Living Human Soul helping the needy at his Gorakhpur constituency without any religious bias.

Here we are going to present various points of views about Yogi in brief. Yogi’s original name was as Ajay Singh Bisht born on June 5, 1972 into a Rajput family in the village of Panchur, in Uttarakhand. His father Anand Singh Bisht was a forest ranger and he completed his Math’s Degree from the University in Uttarakhand. Even at the age of 21, he renounced his family and became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, then the head priest of Gorakhnath Math.  His Guru Mahant Avaidyanath who first got elected as MP as the Hindu Mahasabha candidate, then joined the BJP for the Ayodhya movement in 1980 and the construction of the grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya is his life long ambition and mission.  In 1998 at the age of 26, he was elected as a BJP MP and thereafter in 2002, started his own militant youth wing called Hindu Yuva Vahini which has been known for violent activities in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh, but was instrumental in his meteoric rise. His performance as MP was commendable – with 77% attendance, 284 questions, 56 debates and introduction of three private member bills in the 16th Lok Sabha. 

Adityanath has had a chequered relation with the BJP leadership for more than a decade. In December 2006, Adityanath had organised a three-day Virat Hindu Mahasammelan at Gorakhpur, during the same period when the BJP was holding its National Executive Meet in Lucknow. The 2007 elections saw a conflict between Adityanath and the BJP leadership - he wanted more than hundred seats in this region to go to candidates selected by him, but the party leadership would not agree. Subsequently, a compromise agreement was reached, possibly with inputs from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and eight of his candidates were fielded.

In March 2010, Adityanath was one of several BJP MPs who started defying the party whip on Women's Reservation Bill. Still, Yogi was installed as the Chief Minister of UP, as it was revealed that more than 200 UP MLAs wanted Yogi to be their boss.

 With this background inputs, let us dwell on the controversial utterances of Yogi on various occasions.

His speech opposing the Women's Reservation Bill: Reservation doesn't affect women's domestic responsibilities like childcare. If men develop feminine traits, they become gods, but if women develop masculine traits they become demons… Western ideas of women’s liberation should be properly analysed in the Indian context.

His speech at Azamgarh, referring to the religious conversions due to inter-religious marriages: If they take one Hindu girl, we will take 100 Muslims girls. If they kill one Hindu, there will be 100 that we kill.

His outburst after the terrorist attack on an Indian air force base in Pathankot allegedly by Pakistani terrorists: The Pathankot attack has once again proved that Satan could change for the better but Pakistan cannot.

Responding to actor Shah Rukh Khan's comments on intolerance in the country, Yogi observed: Shah Rukh Khan should remember that if people would boycott his films, he would also have to wander in the streets like a normal Muslim. These people are speaking in the language of terrorists. I think there is no difference between the language of Shah Rukh Khan and Hafiz Saeed.

Yogi’s comment about Mother Teresa: Teresa was part of a conspiracy for Christianisation of India. Incidents of Christianisation had led to separatist movements in parts of North-East, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Adityanath’s praise on the US President Donald Trump's decision: The immigration order that bans travellers from 7 Muslim-majority countries entering the United States is praise worthy and similar action is needed to contain terror activities in this country.

Amid protests by minority groups on yoga, allegedly, being made compulsory, Adityanath remarked: Lord Shankar was the biggest yogi who started yoga. Mahadev lives in every particle of this country. So, those who want to avoid yoga and Lord Shankar can leave Hindustan. There is no rationale to oppose surya namaskar. My humble request to those who see communalism in even Sun God would be to drown themselves in the sea.

I leave to the readers to draw their own conclusions and to judge whether Yogi is a bane or boon.

One fact that the Mainstream Media scrupulously avoid is to close their eyes, when one quotes many texts from Muslim's holy book condemning other religions vehemently. Not only that. Many Devout Muslims honestly believe that there should be only Islam through out the world and it is their holy war to establish that system. To fight and die to achieve that goal, Muslims are informed that they will be rewarded with heavenly abode. No one will dare to debate on these issues and in the process, other religious sects – particularly Hindus in India are put to suffering. Hence majority of Hindus feel secure with the uprising of people like Yogi Adityanath – though many moderate and god fearing Hindus are not in tune with Yogi’s militant utterances, however much truths being revealed in them.

Two glaring comments made on Yogi need careful  scrutiny. One Fali  S. Nariman, Famous Supreme Court Advocate of repute and the other most unreliable and unethical media man -  Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today TV.

First let us deal with Fali S. Nariman’s comments.

Fali S. Nariman’s comments: The Constitution is under threat. With the massive electoral victory in UP, a priest has been installed as the chief minister at the insistence of the Prime Minister… is a signal and if you cannot see then either you are the spokespersons of political parties or you must have your head or eyes examined.’

Nariman’s objections seem to be: Priest is not to be installed as the CM, as it is against constitution. It is the signal for making India as Hindu State – though not directly indicated, it is the message for us. Only BJP Men will not realize this. Others will – if not, they are brainless people or blind not caring for anything.

Our first Education Minister Maulana Azad was a Muslim priest  and at that time, no body had raised any objection stating that the posting was not to be allowed himself being a priest, as it was a threat to our Indian Constitution. 

Supreme Court Judge is also a constitutional post and Fali S. Nariman’s son Rohinton, a Parsi Priest, was appointed as the Supreme Court Judge and Nariman had not felt any threat to the constitution by his priest son’s appointment. To prejudge a person before his performance is itself injustice and hence, we feel that Nariman had lost his brain or pretending to be blind not caring for anything! Sad indeed, an eminent person like Fali S. Nariman had failed in adhering to the fair play and justice. 

 Fali Nariman represented the Union Carbide Company in the famous Bhopal gas disaster in 1984 and due to his skillful argument, Union Carbide got absolved from any criminal liability. Further, being the Union Carbide’s lead counsel in the Supreme Court, he brokered the settlement by which the company got away with just paying compensation, the amount of which has always been criticised as paltry.

A lawyer has both a legal and ethical duty to take up a case, and leave the task of judging his client’s guilt or innocence to the court. But this poses a profound question- should adherence to ethical principles be devoid of any humane considerations ?

This is precisely what Upendra Baxi, another noted legal scholar, asked Nariman. In a public exchange, Baxi accused Nariman of complicity, stating that he ‘assiduously promoted an unconscionable settlement’. Till date, Nariman has maintained that he only did his job, and has tried to give disarming replies to Baxi’s charges. Whose brain and eyes to be examined and is Nariman not answerable for the injustice done to many poor victims of Bhopal Gas tragedy not getting enough compensation?

Perhaps money only matters for Fali Nariman ! Yes, only because of this mind-set, he had funded Cobra post – not a reliable and trustworthy venture.

Now Rajdeep Sardesai’s malicious style of report is going to be exposed, but, he seems to have no sense of shame or guilt – a really thick skinned media person – India Today TV wants sensations to thrive to earn profits!

Even during the campaign by Modi in Varnasi, this crooked Rajdeep Sardesai had twitted stating that Banaras Hindu University Vice Chancellor had joined Modi in his election road show at Varnasi. But, actually he did not participate at all.  On realizing his blunder,  Rajdeep Sardesai  twitted again stating that it was a case of mistaken identity and on apologizing, he had withdrawn the wrong tweet! Shame unto to him and India Today TV.

But, Sardesai’s totally wrong news item reporting as Yogi’s utterance about raping dead Muslim Women is really quite damaging and more so, this news item was repeatedly broadcast in India Today TV.

In a TV debate program on India Today TV channel after the declaration of the name of Yogi Adityanath, as BJP's new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Rajdeep Sardesai referred that “Yogi Adityanath had professed the idea of raping dead Muslim women by pulling them out of the grave”. Actually, Sardesai had relied on his wife’s tweet and started telecasting the news.

Fact of the case is this: In March 2011, the documentary film Saffron War - Radicalization of Hinduism accused Adityanath of promoting communal disharmony through a Virat Hindustan rally in rural Uttar Pradesh.  Adityanath shared the stage during a hate speech in which an unidentified speaker urged the Hindu audience to dig up the graves of Muslim women and rape the corpses. Recording of this event went viral on social media in March 2015.

Hence these were not Yogi’s utterances, but, India Today TV had started tarnishing Yogi’s name even before Yogi could assume CM post.  On knowing his blunder, Sardesai displayed corrigendum and also read out the same. Even here, the date was mentioned as 18th May 2017 instead of correct date of 18th March 2017. See the display slide on the left.

 Since it is a serious wrong telecast tarnishing the image of a political leader and also amounting to spreading rumors, creating and flaring up communal tensions and religious riots, and spreading lies through digital electronic media, The Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) had initiated legal action against both India Today TV and Rajdeep Sardesai. 

Further mere corrigendum is not apology and LRO wanted the management to remove Sardesai from his post immediately, apart from publishing apology with an assurance that such wrong and malicious news item will not be telecast in future.