Home
Publications
Search
Register
Log inThe brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
Page 1 of 1
The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Guest Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:50 pm
We are left looking at the head priest of the Gorakhnath temple whose political career has been built on the aggravation of communal division and an explicit hostility towards minorities. Adityanath's political résumé reads like a Hindutva hit parade: a political apprenticeship served in the campaign to raze the Babri Masjid; the raising of a vigilante Hindu army, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, with a hard-won reputation for violence and intimidation; the conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism (ghar wapsi); the campaign against 'love jihad' (Muslim men allegedly preying on Hindu women); the related 'anti-Romeo' squads; the singling out of the meat trade because of its Muslim connection and a long history of berating the BJP for being insufficiently committed to the Hindu cause.
It's very hard to assimilate the yogi to the cause of progress because he has spent a lifetime successfully embodying reaction. And it isn't just communal bigotry that marks him out; on every major public issue, he represents a Great Leap Backwards. He defied the BJP's whip on the women's reservation bill, he was an ardent advocate of the restoration of the monarchy in Nepal, and he remains an outspoken defender of the hierarchies of caste.
How then, to 'normalize' his ascension? The party's apologists offered a set of overlapping arguments.
The first of these emphasized the democratic mandate of the BJP and the electoral clout of Adityanath. By winning around 40 per cent of the popular vote, the BJP hoovered up a massive legislative majority and Adityanath's political constituency in eastern UP contributed substantially to this victory. He was a mass leader and the BJP had the intelligence to make a charismatic leader with broad social acceptability the chief minister of a politically vital province. To criticize this was, in effect, to publicly crib about a democratic outcome.
Related to this argument was an emphasis on Adityanath's caste liminality. As a Rajput who had become the mahant of a temple with a broad following amongst backward castes and Dalits, Adityanath was the caste-transcending leader the BJP needed to symbolize its electoral success in UP.
The problem with these arguments is that the political significance of Adityanath's elevation is a matter quite separate from his eligibility for that office or his electoral history. The BJP is entirely within its rights to make him chief minister; the question that interests people outside the party faithful is what this tells us about the politics of the party and the prime minister who put him in office.
And what it tells us is this. When it is in a position of strength the BJP will, other things being equal, choose the most viscerally communal and Hindu-supremacist candidate on its shortlist. And it will choose him not despite the bigotry of his past utterances and actions but because of it. What we are seeing in UP is a textbook example of how a genuinely extremist party behaves when it is released from the constraints of coalition building and negotiation.
The chief minister and the BJP have had their differences in the past with Adityanath routinely calling the party out for cowardice in the Hindu cause. But the party never broke with him because it recognized that his explicit commitment to the subordination of Muslims was a state of political grace to which it aspired. Institutional caution ensured that Adityanath wasn't a candidate for the chief ministership; a pan-Indian political party must be prudent. But after the landslide, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah felt free to install a chief minister made in their own image. Adityanath is Hindutva unbound.
And what does Hindutva unbound look like? If you go to Adityanath's website, the home page highlights a warning. It says, "Hindutva is the special consciousness of the nation. To attack it is to invite Armageddon." In Hindi 'special consciousness' is rendered as 'sanchetna'. It is useful to listen in when the aspirations of this 'consciousness' are being spelt out. Some years ago, Adityanath presided over a 'Virat Hindu Chetna Rally'. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the stage while a rabble-rousing speaker outlined the contours of a Hindu rashtra. This was the infamous occasion when this speaker declared that the need of the hour was to dig dead Muslim women out of their graves and do unspeakable things to them. But lost in the controversy over this vile and grotesque utterance were the remarks that came earlier.
In this passage the speaker predicted that the day India became a Hindu rashtra and passed into the hands of young sanyasis like Adityanath, Muslims would be reduced to the condition of Hindus in Pakistan. They would be second-class citizens. The right to vote would be taken away from them and once that happened, no political party would be able to use a fake secularism to deceive Hindu society. At no point during this rant did Adityanath intercede or express disagreement.
The Right's publicists argue that to make him chief minister is to draw him away from the fringe into the constraining ambit of governance. His principal task, apparently, is to bring order to UP's badlands, to redress the balance that the previous regime had upset by allegedly pandering to Muslims. It is certainly the case that a chief minister who has arrived at his present eminence by naming Muslims as the enemy is uniquely equipped to make sure that the state doesn't 'pander' to them. It is less clear how a politician whose vigilante militia has been involved in multiple incidents of communal violence since 1999 can be seen as a specialist in 'law and order' unless that phrase has a coded Hindutva meaning.
The elevation of Adityanath isn't an attempt to co-opt the fringe: it is the BJP's candid acknowledgment that the fringe is the parivar's ideological vanguard. The publicists who went the extra mile to normalize this moment have earned their tawdry footnote in the intellectual history of our time.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170326/jsp/opinion/story_142657.jsp#.WNnVvlKZP-b
It's very hard to assimilate the yogi to the cause of progress because he has spent a lifetime successfully embodying reaction. And it isn't just communal bigotry that marks him out; on every major public issue, he represents a Great Leap Backwards. He defied the BJP's whip on the women's reservation bill, he was an ardent advocate of the restoration of the monarchy in Nepal, and he remains an outspoken defender of the hierarchies of caste.
How then, to 'normalize' his ascension? The party's apologists offered a set of overlapping arguments.
The first of these emphasized the democratic mandate of the BJP and the electoral clout of Adityanath. By winning around 40 per cent of the popular vote, the BJP hoovered up a massive legislative majority and Adityanath's political constituency in eastern UP contributed substantially to this victory. He was a mass leader and the BJP had the intelligence to make a charismatic leader with broad social acceptability the chief minister of a politically vital province. To criticize this was, in effect, to publicly crib about a democratic outcome.
Related to this argument was an emphasis on Adityanath's caste liminality. As a Rajput who had become the mahant of a temple with a broad following amongst backward castes and Dalits, Adityanath was the caste-transcending leader the BJP needed to symbolize its electoral success in UP.
The problem with these arguments is that the political significance of Adityanath's elevation is a matter quite separate from his eligibility for that office or his electoral history. The BJP is entirely within its rights to make him chief minister; the question that interests people outside the party faithful is what this tells us about the politics of the party and the prime minister who put him in office.
And what it tells us is this. When it is in a position of strength the BJP will, other things being equal, choose the most viscerally communal and Hindu-supremacist candidate on its shortlist. And it will choose him not despite the bigotry of his past utterances and actions but because of it. What we are seeing in UP is a textbook example of how a genuinely extremist party behaves when it is released from the constraints of coalition building and negotiation.
The chief minister and the BJP have had their differences in the past with Adityanath routinely calling the party out for cowardice in the Hindu cause. But the party never broke with him because it recognized that his explicit commitment to the subordination of Muslims was a state of political grace to which it aspired. Institutional caution ensured that Adityanath wasn't a candidate for the chief ministership; a pan-Indian political party must be prudent. But after the landslide, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah felt free to install a chief minister made in their own image. Adityanath is Hindutva unbound.
And what does Hindutva unbound look like? If you go to Adityanath's website, the home page highlights a warning. It says, "Hindutva is the special consciousness of the nation. To attack it is to invite Armageddon." In Hindi 'special consciousness' is rendered as 'sanchetna'. It is useful to listen in when the aspirations of this 'consciousness' are being spelt out. Some years ago, Adityanath presided over a 'Virat Hindu Chetna Rally'. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the stage while a rabble-rousing speaker outlined the contours of a Hindu rashtra. This was the infamous occasion when this speaker declared that the need of the hour was to dig dead Muslim women out of their graves and do unspeakable things to them. But lost in the controversy over this vile and grotesque utterance were the remarks that came earlier.
In this passage the speaker predicted that the day India became a Hindu rashtra and passed into the hands of young sanyasis like Adityanath, Muslims would be reduced to the condition of Hindus in Pakistan. They would be second-class citizens. The right to vote would be taken away from them and once that happened, no political party would be able to use a fake secularism to deceive Hindu society. At no point during this rant did Adityanath intercede or express disagreement.
The Right's publicists argue that to make him chief minister is to draw him away from the fringe into the constraining ambit of governance. His principal task, apparently, is to bring order to UP's badlands, to redress the balance that the previous regime had upset by allegedly pandering to Muslims. It is certainly the case that a chief minister who has arrived at his present eminence by naming Muslims as the enemy is uniquely equipped to make sure that the state doesn't 'pander' to them. It is less clear how a politician whose vigilante militia has been involved in multiple incidents of communal violence since 1999 can be seen as a specialist in 'law and order' unless that phrase has a coded Hindutva meaning.
The elevation of Adityanath isn't an attempt to co-opt the fringe: it is the BJP's candid acknowledgment that the fringe is the parivar's ideological vanguard. The publicists who went the extra mile to normalize this moment have earned their tawdry footnote in the intellectual history of our time.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170326/jsp/opinion/story_142657.jsp#.WNnVvlKZP-b
Guest- Guest
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Seva Lamberdar Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:57 pm
Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva Lamberdar- Posts : 6574
Join date : 2012-11-29 -
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Guest Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:42 pm
Seva Lamberdar wrote:Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
---
Some years ago, Adityanath presided over a 'Virat Hindu Chetna Rally'. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the stage while a rabble-rousing speaker outlined the contours of a Hindu rashtra. This was the infamous occasion when this speaker declared that the need of the hour was to dig dead Muslim women out of their graves and do unspeakable things to them. But lost in the controversy over this vile and grotesque utterance were the remarks that came earlier.
In this passage the speaker predicted that the day India became a Hindu rashtra and passed into the hands of young sanyasis like Adityanath, Muslims would be reduced to the condition of Hindus in Pakistan. They would be second-class citizens. The right to vote would be taken away from them and once that happened, no political party would be able to use a fake secularism to deceive Hindu society. At no point during this rant did Adityanath intercede or express disagreement.
Guest- Guest
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Seva Lamberdar Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:20 am
Rashmun, the question to you and your friends in the media and politics should be as to why people / voters in U.P. kicked out your favorite politicians and political parties holding power previously as Govts. and even gave a chance to the BJP to form new Govt., in spite of you guys constantly badmouthing and badgering BJP in the past and presently?Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
Seva Lamberdar- Posts : 6574
Join date : 2012-11-29 -
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Guest Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:42 am
Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun, the question to you and your friends in the media and politics should be as to why people / voters in U.P. kicked out your favorite politicians and political parties holding power previously as Govts. and even gave a chance to the BJP to form new Govt., in spite of you guys constantly badmouthing and badgering BJP in the past and presently?Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
winning elections doesn't prove anything. Rajiv Gandhi won elections by huge landslides. So did Hitler (before he became a dictator Hitler fought elections and won handsomely). BJP won UP primarily because the caste combination was in its favor. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/11/many-factors-helped-bjp-win-up-the-biggest-was-caste/
Guest- Guest
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Seva Lamberdar Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:53 am
Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun, the question to you and your friends in the media and politics should be as to why people / voters in U.P. kicked out your favorite politicians and political parties holding power previously as Govts. and even gave a chance to the BJP to form new Govt., in spite of you guys constantly badmouthing and badgering BJP in the past and presently?Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
winning elections doesn't prove anything. Rajiv Gandhi won elections by huge landslides. So did Hitler (before he became a dictator Hitler fought elections and won handsomely). BJP won UP primarily because the caste combination was in its favor. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/11/many-factors-helped-bjp-win-up-the-biggest-was-caste/
The basic thing for the BJP coming to power seems to be the total failure of previous non-BJP Govts. which you admired tremendously while criticizing and badmouthing BJP.
Seva Lamberdar- Posts : 6574
Join date : 2012-11-29 -
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Guest Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:58 am
Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun, the question to you and your friends in the media and politics should be as to why people / voters in U.P. kicked out your favorite politicians and political parties holding power previously as Govts. and even gave a chance to the BJP to form new Govt., in spite of you guys constantly badmouthing and badgering BJP in the past and presently?Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Easy to understand your anguish and those of your pals in the media and politics. For decades, you all were badmouthing some guys and political parties as communal and extremists etc. and now public has chosen the same (derided by you in the past) to form the new Govt. and solve political mess and problems created and left by your favorite politicians and political parties.
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
winning elections doesn't prove anything. Rajiv Gandhi won elections by huge landslides. So did Hitler (before he became a dictator Hitler fought elections and won handsomely). BJP won UP primarily because the caste combination was in its favor. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/11/many-factors-helped-bjp-win-up-the-biggest-was-caste/
The basic thing for the BJP coming to power seems to be the total failure of previous non-BJP Govts. which you admired tremendously while criticizing and badmouthing BJP.
is that the same reason why Vajpayee lost to Sonia in 2004?
Guest- Guest
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Seva Lamberdar Wed Mar 29, 2017 9:01 am
Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun wrote:Seva Lamberdar wrote:Rashmun, the question to you and your friends in the media and politics should be as to why people / voters in U.P. kicked out your favorite politicians and political parties holding power previously as Govts. and even gave a chance to the BJP to form new Govt., in spite of you guys constantly badmouthing and badgering BJP in the past and presently?Rashmun wrote:
Seva do you really see no problem with Adityanath after reading the article? Are you really so heartless and callous and cruel?
winning elections doesn't prove anything. Rajiv Gandhi won elections by huge landslides. So did Hitler (before he became a dictator Hitler fought elections and won handsomely). BJP won UP primarily because the caste combination was in its favor. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/11/many-factors-helped-bjp-win-up-the-biggest-was-caste/
The basic thing for the BJP coming to power seems to be the total failure of previous non-BJP Govts. which you admired tremendously while criticizing and badmouthing BJP.
is that the same reason why Vajpayee lost to Sonia in 2004?
You tell me.
Seva Lamberdar- Posts : 6574
Join date : 2012-11-29 -
Re: The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: How people are trying to justify the violent, communal & lawless bigot Adityanath as CM
by Sponsored content
Sponsored content
Similar topics» The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: The trouble with Narendra Modi's theory of Gau Rakshaks
» The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: For the first time, Hindutva is being advanced on a secular footing
» fantastic piece in cricinfo by mukul kesavan
» mukul kesavan and dravid's calling time on his career
» Mukul Kesavan: India's minorities feel threatened by BJP's majoritarianism
» The brilliant Mukul Kesavan: For the first time, Hindutva is being advanced on a secular footing
» fantastic piece in cricinfo by mukul kesavan
» mukul kesavan and dravid's calling time on his career
» Mukul Kesavan: India's minorities feel threatened by BJP's majoritarianism
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum