How UP CM Adityanath replaced the earlier mafia in UP

by Guest Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:32 pm

Adityanath is a familiar face in national politics due to his communal remarks from time to time, the latest being prior to the voting in western UP in an attempt to gain the Hindu and particularly the OBC vote in the face of Jat opposition. Born Ajay Singh (June 5, 1972), a Rajput from Uttarakhand, he holds a university degree and has been the MP from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency five times since 1998, including most recently in 2014. He was appointed mahant on September 14, 2014, after the death of his guru, Mahant Avaidyanath. The Gorakhnath Math has been involved in political matters for decades, but Adityanath has made Poorvanchal his Hindutva laboratory since the late 1990s.

What may not be as well known is the manner in which the yogi rose to prominence in the late 1990s, gradually replacing the earlier ‘upper’-caste mafia of the 1980s such as Harishankar Tiwari (a Brahmin) and Virendra Pratap Shahi (a Rajput) who dominated the politics of the region. This mafia had control over government tenders, vast patronage and connections with political parties, but no communal linkages. The decline of this mafia provided space to the yogi, leading to a shift from caste-centric mafiadom to religious criminalisation. This was possible as Adityanath had two advantages: he was a Rajput during a period when ‘upper’-caste dominance was being challenged and he has successfully forged an alliance with the ‘lower’ castes – the OBCs and Dalits – to maintain his dominance. Hence, in 1998, 26-year-old Adityanath was fielded as the BJP candidate from Gorakhpur as Advaityanath was not keeping well. The yogi not only won the election, but he was able quite rapidly, through even use of force, to decimate the earlier mafia, emerge as a dominant force and communalise the politics of the region.

Another aspect that is perhaps not well known is that the yogi has a large number of FIRs against him for causing communal tension, violence and even attempt to murder. He was implicated in the Gorakhpur riots of 2007 but no action was taken by the Samajwadi Party government. In March 2011, the documentary film Saffron War – Radicalization of Hinduism accused Adityanath of promoting communal disharmony through a ‘Virat Hindustan’ rally in rural UP. Ministers in many state governments in UP have in the past had criminal cases against them, but this is perhaps the first time a chief minister has such a criminal record.

https://thewire.in/117655/yogi-adityanath-uttar-pradesh-bjp/

by Guest Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:58 pm

The goal of the BJP-RSS is not only to win elections but to make India more Hindu. The idea is not to have large riots, but slowly to make Hindutva acceptable in the eyes of the common man and render the Muslim as the ‘other’, in which the yogi has been very successful through long-term mobilisation, patronage and work among the people. The RSS has found him very successful in this venture and making him chief minister sends a message to the people and the party workers about the goals of the BJP....

Clearly a new era has begun under a saffron chief minister heading a key state like UP in the Indian Union. Modi and Shah have made a big gamble over the next two years prior to the 2019 elections, to combine their twin agenda of development and Hindu consolidation. The former has to be followed as they have promised the UP electorate rapid economic change. Yet they are aware that they could not have won in 2014 and 2017 without communal polarisation; for them the Muslim vote and well-being does not seem to count. The victory of the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections has put India on the path of a majoritarian democracy, in which a strong and developed Hindu nation is to be created.

How UP CM Adityanath replaced the earlier mafia in UP

How UP CM Adityanath replaced the earlier mafia in UP

Re: How UP CM Adityanath replaced the earlier mafia in UP