Skip to main content

Uttar Pradesh deserved what it wanted: People should be prepared to see how Yogi fulfills Modi's #mankibat

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*
Yogi Adityanath has been appointed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. That shows the power of 'mobocracy' when we call it 'democracy' and paid thugs define it in their different ways wasting time of the nation and confusing people further. I am not surprised at the choice of the Sangh Parivar as they believe in building leaders for future. 
Other parties suffer from one individual leader or family and the result is once the individual is defeated or dies or goes to jail the entire party collapses. The RSS is intelligent in this regard so it continue to experiment. It need a leader other than Modi who could be used to vitiate atmosphere further and who can attract votes, a kind of rabble rouser. Yogi is 1972 born yet his ácceptability' is all over the country. As the reports of his being elected as leader of the state BJP party came out there were news of celebrations in many parts of the state. Yogi has equal number of devotees if not more than his foes.
The way the BJP campaigned in Uttar Pradesh particularly at the last phase converting the entire campaign to Hindu Muslim binary resulted it in the massive mandate. If the Delhi journos who have been 'fascinated' by the big 'money' of Hindutva party to talk about its 'developmental' agenda believe that the election was a stamp on Modi's #notebandi or #demonetisation or #surgicalstrike have got the answer today that vikas for the Hindutva means war between Shamshan and Kabristan. Those who know Yogi's past well do understand his uncontrolled fulminations against Muslims. Many of the speeches are already viral on youtube.
In Lucknow even the most committed BJP supporter felt deceived. As I was travelling to the Raj Bhavan area, the auto driver told me that Mr Manoj Sinha was going to be the chief minister. 'Sir, he is a very éducated' person. Uttar Pradesh need educated chief minister who can take it forward he said. His excitement showed that he was a BJP supporter from eastern Uttar Pradesh who perhaps belong to either a Bhumihar community though I doubt very much as i rarely found a Bhumihar plying an auto). After my meeting was over, I called up the same autowallah on his phone. It was 7 pm and we started coming back to Indiranagar where I was putting up. 'Do you know Yogi Adityanath will be the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh', I asked. He was furious. Sir these people will destroy UP. What does Yogi know of governance, he said. The way he reacted showed the resentment but then those who dont want jobs, security or development and only satisfied with ranting of 'ram lala hum aayenge, mandir wahi banayenge', are enthused.
Yogi Adityanath already face serious charges of rioting, creating animosity among communities, hurting religious sentiments but now the police will work under him. A Hindtuva sympathiser anchor tweeted a short while ago that why are we judging Adityanath in advance. 'Give him time'', he said. The problem with these journos is that they have to rant and want to preempt any criticism. Why should we bother who BJP elect. It is its choice and matter of the legislative party. It is not doing things for the first time. It has a track record of using contradictions among people as well as legislatures. I dont want to repeat his despicable speeches in the public which are available.
It is for sure that BJP has no faith in 'developmental' agenda or economic growth. Uttar Pradesh is very important for its 2019 programme. The polls might be prempted too. Modi can strike when opposition is the weakest and it is therefore important for BJP to persist with leaders who are hardliners so that they keep the state in the election mode. BJP realised it well that it is easier to mobilise OBCs and Dalits on creating anti Muslim sentiments even though the entire upper castes have already joined their bandwagon. So the state headed for further polarisation between Muslims and non Muslims. What the Bahujan polity failed to polarise the polity between the Sawarnas verses Bahujans as it never tried to resolve the local contradictions between various communities and except for ideological issues it never ever bothered about people's issues.
BJP has unashamedly used its hidden agenda. It went to the people with different caste identities but at the end of the day it ended up in handing over Uttar Pradesh again to Savarna Hindus after 15 years. Yogi's agenda will be to aggressively pursue his binary till 2019. The party wooed OBCs who voted for it in large number but it could not make an OBC leader of the party. Dalits are still not given serious posts while Muslims will find it difficult to work with Jogi whose communal rantings are well known to the world.
While BJP may celebrate that it has a person who has an all India appeal, I am again sure, it has given opportunity to all the non brahmanical parties to join hand. Both BSP and Samajwadi party will have to redefine the Bahujan agenda to their cadres. There is a need to develop cultural movement of the Bahujans. To counter Yogi's politics we need to aggressively assert with Ambedkar, Phule, Periyar, Birsa and Bhagat Singh. The political parties will have to raise the issue of the common people and continue to monitor the policies of the government. Political leadership at all level will have to develop secular principles and give tickets to those who are committed to the party principles. A Mahagathbandhan between Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress along with other smaller parties can give strong message to people all over the country. These parties have to come out of their mavericks and should not field candidates in those areas where it does not have their presence.
With Yogi, BJP has made it clear that it wish to go with aggrassive Hindutva politics. It is time for political leadership of the parties adherehing to social justice that they come out with a clear programme and strengthen their social movement wings, leave aside their egoes and start working from today. We will have to bring the Bahujan agenda of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar to counter brahmanical hate politics. If the Bahujan leaders and parties are unable to understand that India need them to come together then none can save them. It is no time for developing parties as it is very very difficult to counter HIndutva with new outfits but completely democratising the existing parties and make the inclusive to diversity of Bahujan communities. The writing is on the wall. Uttar Pradesh deserve better and therefore the onus is now on Akhilesh Yadav, Ms Mayawati to join hand and defeat Hindutva forces Uttar Pradesh. Once you control their march in Uttar Pradesh, I am sure similar likeminded alliances will happen elsewhere too.
At the moment, Uttar Pradesh got what it deserve. Be prepared to see how Yogi fulfill Modi's #mankibat. Uttar Pradesh elections were never fought on developmental plank as Akhilesh thought but purely on Brahmanical narratives and perceptions. Thakur Adityanath is the choice to keep the powerful upper caste lobby happy. To assist him one OBC and one brahmin have been offered Deputy CM. This is what 'minimum government'' means. The farce that was played in Lucknow showed how BJP find it difficult to make every one happy. The OBC and Dalits voted for it yet the party showed its preferences for upper castes everywhere. Today Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Maharastra, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and now Uttar Pradesh have upper caste leaders as chief ministers. This might result in people protesting against the party. All the local leaders sit silently for time being and wait for opportune moment.
Yogi's ascendency to Uttar Pradesh chief minister's position has shocked many who thought BJP is truly a 'liberal'' modern electoral party. Today, the party stand exposed and in 2019 it will find too difficult provide new set of jumlas as they will ask further questions. All the secular Bahujan forces have historic opportunity now to leave their prejudices and work for the benefit of the people. Will both Ms Mayawati and Mr Akhilesh Yadav will rise up to the occasion. They must leave aside their personal egos as Bahujan masses want them to unite. Ms Maywati has a larger national appeal so can be pushed by all the like minded parties including Congress as face of the Prime Minister in 2019 while Akhilesh Yadav should be projected as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh by the alliance. Both the leaders must join hand and also get their cadres speak to each other. Akhilesh has age on his side and he will only excel now onwards. Any attempt to finish these parties will be only helpful to BJP. So, it is time we understand the hidden agenda of Sangh to eliminate various political parties from the maps of India. Let the parties decide about their leadership but all the mature politicians must develop the counter narrative to expose the lies and deceit of such forces. Hinduta is not merely a political issue but socio-cultural too and its narratives have already reached huge number of the Bahujan communities. We have failed in building up our reach to them.It is time we do it. As I said earlier too, India's Bahujan secular forces wants a grand alliance of all the like minded secular social justice Ambedkarite Bahujan left forces to join hand in the greater interest of the country. Please dont join hand just for election purposes but make a common minimum programme and work accordingly. The time is too short for next general elections and Modi may surprise political parties from his announcement. People with the idea of inclusive India need to stand up united now as their time has begun.
---
*https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat/posts/10154703235272885

Comments

TRENDING

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi*  This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk  The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

From triple centurion to master coach: Bob Simpson’s enduring legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  Former Australia cricket captain and coach Bob Simpson has died in Sydney aged 89. He leaves behind an indelible legacy, having shaped Australian cricket for more than four decades as a player, captain and coach. Beyond the field, he also served the game as a law-maker, referee and commentator, carving a permanent niche among the all-time greats of Australian cricket.