Yogi In 'tears', But Can The Drama Whitewash His Black Deeds ?
By Subhash Gatade
15 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org(Self-appointed custodian of Hindu interests and member of Parliament from Gorakhpur from the Hindu Mahasabha, Yogi Adityanath, is hell-bent upon repeating “Gujarat” in eastern UP. He along with his militia of lumpen elements has let loose a reign of terror in Gorakhpur, Deoria, Siddharthanagar and neighbouring districts of eastern UP.
The head priest of world famous Gorakhnanth temple, is not a sadhu in real sense of the term. Instead of preaching love and compassion among his followers, he is a trader of hate preaching violence and communal bias among hotheads and lumpens who happen to be Hindu but never bother to read and practice the real message and teachings of this great and ancient religion.
This young saint belonging to Sangh Parivar rushes to every place where even a minor altercation takes place between two peoples belonging to different communities.
- Yogi Preaching Hate, Attempts to repeat Gujarat in eastern UP, The Milli Gazette, Vol 3,No 18,)
There are very few moments in the house where one comes across instances where a tragicomedy unfolds itself. The zero hour in the Parliament on Monday (12 th March 2007) witnessed one such occasion when a MP of the BJP Yogi Adityanath broke down, and MPs from either side of the ruling dispensation rushed to console him and asked the chair to look at his 'grievances'.As the whole nation witnessed Yogi Adityanath, who happens to represent Gorakhpur in UP and is the heir to the Gorakhnath seat at Gorakhpur, tried to ( to quote The Pioneer)drew national attention to ' the crisis like situation in his constituency and its environs' where 'a section of state-backed hoodlums and minor politicians have carried out religion-specific acts of mayhem'. People watching the TV might have heard that supposedly because of this situation the 'Hindu middle class is leading a terrified existence'
People who are familiar with Gorakhpur's metamorphosis from a oasis of communal harmony to a communally sensitive city and the role of Yogi in it, would vouch that Yogi's utterances on the floor of the house are another pack of lies.
Of course, every wo/man has a right to express indignation in whatever form s/he perceives it to be OK, and one cannot dispute Yogi's right to do the same. But people cannot be left on their own to decide their take merely on the basis of such emotionally laden act as tears at times prove to be deceptive.Definitely one need to go into few details about the man and his 'mission' in the 'badlands' of UP where supposedly the young MP is engaged in 'patriotic' acts.
And the most recent one of his actions is his and his organisations role in the communal buildup in Eastern UP in recent times. Perhaps one can gauge the quality of the intervention by Yogi from the fact that today this area which did not witness any communal riots at the time of partition, an area which did not witness any flareup when Babri Mosque was demolished, has today metamorphosed into an area which comes under highly sensitive communal zones in UP. Indepedent analysts also agree that the recent flareup in Gorakhpur and adjoining areas were a direct outcome of Yogi's actions, because of which the whole region had to face curfew or similar situation for around two weeks. It is true that this unprecedented curfew proved to be backbreaking for most of the population.
Much has been written about the riot like situation created at the instance of Yogi and his gang of lumpens called Hindu Yuva Vahini, which saw deaths of innocents, who intervened in a private scuffle at the time of a marriage party. But for the timely intervention by the then district magistrate Hari Om and the Superintendent of Police, the situation would have turned worse. The D.M ( who was immediately transferred by Mulayam for his prompt action) saw to it that the main troublemaker(s) in this whole episode be interned to calm the situation. It was worth noting that this strategy worked and for the first time in his whole political career Yogi found himself on the defensive. Within a week of his internment the 'sporadic and spontaneous actions' by his followers in different parts of Eastern UP died down, the traders association also decided to resume work which had initially declared a closure till the release of Yogi. While charges were clamped against Yogi under breach of peace and danger to communal harmony, many of his close associates found themselve cooling their heels with charges under National Security Act filed against them.
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It was a marker of things to come that when Gujarat was burning in the aftermath of Godhra (Year 2002)with the fire directed at minorities Gorakhpur was not far behind. Many parallel instances of terrorizing the minorities , razing their houses to ground all under the leadership of this ‘firebrand’ leader had come to light. Loud proclamation of turning Gorakhpur into Godhra-Gujarat were also heard. In the post-Godhra bandh a leader of Hindu Mahasabha and considered as the right hand man of Yogi in his speech had declared, “ If only Yogiji permits us we will repay a hundred per each.”The local MLA Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agarwal in his speech which was reported in papers had defiantly declared ,”Gorakhpur is a Hindu Rashtra. Yogijee is both its President and Prime Minister .”
A key feature of the Hindutva experiment engaged in by Yogi is to always keep Muslims in focus and win over the dalits and backwards to his side. In order to organise the Dalits against the Muslims he has made it a policy to interfere in all small or big quarrels between them and endeavour to paint it in communal black. There are no two opinions that Yogi has succeeded in instigating anti-Muslim feelings from Gorakhpur, Deoria, Siddharthnagar to Baharaich . The geographical layout of Gorakhpur has also helped him in this. At one end it abuts on Ayodhya and on the other on Nepal. Like the RSS the bogey of ISI training camps on Indo-Nepal border is also raised by Yogi. Every day there is a plethora of propaganda in papers about increase in the ISI activities through the madarsas on the Indo-Nepal border ‘or again ‘The clandestine relations between the ISI-Maoist .Needless to say all based on figments of their feverish imagination.
Uttar Pradesh PUCL as well as another organisation-Insaaf—in their Enquiry Report ,”UP Ab Gujarat ki Rah Par” ( UP On Way To Gujarat) had given a long list of deeds of Yogi out to become a mini-Mody. On the basis of this Report based on spot investigations into the incidents at Mohan Mundera , Nathua and Turkmanpur a representation was also made to the NHRC (5th July 2002) inter alia clarifying how Yogi gives lurid communal colours to what is after all just a criminal misdeed ; the police and administration adopts a purely defensive posture before the attach resulting into engulfng the Muslim population in terror and insecurity.The unfortunate fatal attacks on Muslims at Mohan Mundera(Dt.Kushinagar)on 19th June 2002, at Nathua(PS-Pipraich ) on 23rd June or again on the 25th June 2002 at Pande Hata (Gorakhpur)are links in the same chain. It may be mentioned that under the provocation of alleged rape of a backward class girl by an antisocial element who happened to be a Muslim a mob of thousands of people had attacked the Muslim locality setting their houses on fire.Hindutva terrorist had a hand in it.There are reports that after heaping destruction on the Muslims at MohanMundera the mob descended on Nahua (PS Piparaich,Dt.Gorakhpur) where following the harassment of a Dalit Hindu girl there were some incidents of stabbing.The mob set fire to three Muslim houses there. This was preceded by a public meeting and when sufficient strength gathered the locality was challenged and the attack mounted. However, in this case a complaint has been filed against the members of Hindu Mahasabha and the rowdy Deepak Agarwal, a right hand man of Yogi.
October 2005 witnessed a communal flareup in Mau based in Eastern UP on the eve of the Durga Pooja celebrations. It saw killing of nine innocents apart from the hundreds of wounded people.While the rest of the world came to know of the controversial role played by the local MLA Mukhtar Ansari during the riots or the lethargy exhibited by the law and order machinery while controlling the situation, the aggressive role played by Yogi Adityanath was not much talked about.
In their report on the Mau situation after the riots, ‘Saajhi Duniya’ a group of intellectual and social activists rightly noted (www.sabrang.com) this fact :.“ Whatever is happening in Purvanchal is occasionally discussed but there is no serious initiative to analyse the same. For last one decade the aggressive activities of heir of Goraksha Peeth and BJP MP Yogi Adityanath to organize Hindus was clearly reflected in the riot in Mau. During the last decade the Yogi has made this entire area, specially the area known as Gorakhpur during the times of Britishers, his laboratory. ...
This organization comprises mostly unemployed youth, small level criminals and the youth struggling for identity. For them any small event involving Muslims becomes very important. As soon as they receive the information of such an event, the workers of Hindu Yuva Vahini reach there as the messengers of Yogi and later Yogi himself reaches . Most of their acts are destructive like arson, destruction of property and beating. A lively example is Mohanmundera episode in Kushinagar. Here a Muslim boy raped a Hindu girl and the girl died during treatment. After 3 days when Yogi came to know about this, he reached there with his Vahini workers. The property of all the 72 Muslims families was looted. Their houses were put to fire. Masjid was damaged. Police remained a neutral witness. There are several such examples.”
Yogi had organised a three day international conclave named ‘Virat Hindu Mahasammelan’ (22-24th December 2006) in Gorakhpur which was attended by thousands of people which not only included many leaders of the Sangh Parivar, but had enough presence of local Sadhus as well as more than five hundred delegates from Nepal. The congregation not only called for declaration of Nepal as ‘Hindu State and restoration of monarchy there but also resolved for the construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya, and “liberation” of the Kashi and Mathura shrines, ban on cow slaughter.It also criticised the Indian Government stand on Nepal and said no political party was taking Maoists’ activities seriously.The Mahasammelan also deliberated on the ‘pathetic’ condition of the Hindus in Nepal and the alleged activities of ISI of Pakistan there which was supposedly spreading its network to create disturbance in India.
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While parties which are part of BJP alliance would naturally support a man like Yogi, it was really pathetic to see one of the left MPs in Parliament rushing to console him and asking the chair to intervene. Definitely either the left or its honourable MPs are not aware of the local situation and the sectarian role of Yogi in its aggravation or they are looking at the whole episode vis-a-vis their aversion/support to Samajwadi party. Perhaps they better do their homework and then take a stand.
There are many types of tears: While one type of tears act as purifiers the other category is meant to hide. It is for everyone to decide how they plan to look at Yogi's tears . But as far as ordinary masses are concerned they have already given their verdict. For them it is another futile attempt by the Yogi to gain some sympathy so that he could once again reinvigorate his politics of hate which has faced reversals in recent times.
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