With Adityanath being appointed Chief Minister, influential sections of the electronic and print media in Hindi and English have gone into an overdrive to whitewash his track record and give his communal bahubali (goon/don) a makeover. So we have a host of stories remoulding Adityanath as a ‘Vikas Guru’ and telling us how he loves dogs and cows, what he eats for breakfast, and how he loves and employs Muslims.
These media houses, happy to brand Muslim men as “terrorists” without any evidence, are shy of calling a spade a spade, and calling Adityanath a saffron-cloaked, hate-spewing leader of a terrorist outfit the Hindu Yuva Vahini. They are ignoring the copious, overflowing evidence of Adityanath’s speeches and writings reeking of obscurantism, misogyny, communalism and casteism, as well as evidence of direct involvement in crime and communal violence.
The Gorakhnath Peeth: History of Hindutva Hate
Travesty of Gorakhnath’s Teachings
The Gorakhnath Peeth has evolved in a direction away from the original spirit of the teachings of the 11th century saint Gorakhnath, which are expressed in a set of couplets and verses called the Gorakhbani.
To cite just some of those verses:
While remaining within the mind, not disclosing the secret,
The immortal words (words of nectar) should be spoken.
If anybody in front (of you) is fire,
O avadhūt, you should become water.
A Hindu worships in the temple,
A Muslim in the mosque.
A yogi worships the supreme
Where there is neither temple nor mosque.
Gorakh says Oh avadhūt, listen:
Be like this in the world:
Look with your eyes, listen with your ears,
But don’t say anything with your mouth.
Adityanath is a very far cry from a true yogi of the Gorakhnath tradition. He spews hate speech not “words of nectar.” He pits temple against mosque for political power. He instigates strife – lights communal fires – rather than be ‘water if anyone is fire.’
Adityanath’s Hate Speech
Open Adityanath’s website and you are greeted with the slogan “Hindutva is the conscience of the nation. To attack it to invite the holocaust.”
Here is a sample of Adityanath’s worst hate speeches.
At Etah in 2005, he said – “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation).”
In a TV interview just before the recent UP polls, Adityanath defended changing the names of places with “Muslim” names to Hindu ones in Gorakhpur (Gorakhpur’s Miyan Bazaar to Maya Bazaar, Ali Nagar to Arya Nagar, Urdu Bazaar to Hindi Bazaar). Asked if he would change the name of the Taj Mahal, he said “yes of course.”
In September 2014 at a rally in Noida, he suggested that Muslim population must be regulated to control riots: “There have been 450 riot cases in West UP in two-and-a-half years of Samajwadi Party rule because the population of a particular community is rising manifold. Why are there no riots in Eastern UP? You can easily understand. In places where there are 10 to 20% minorities, stray communal incidents take place. Where there are 20 to 35% of them, serious communal riots take place and where they are more than 35%, there is no place for non-Muslims.”
In February 2015, he declared at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s ‘Virat Hindu Sammelan’ in Varanasi: “Every time a Hindu visits the Vishwanath temple, the Gyanvapi mosque taunts us. If given a chance, we will install statues of Goddess Gauri, Ganesh and Nandi in every mosque.”
In June 2015, at a temple ceremony in Varanasi, Adityanath declared, “Lord Shankar was the biggest Yogi who started Yoga. Mahadev (another name for Shankar) lives in every particle of this country. So, those who want to avoid surya namaskar, Yoga and Lord Shankar can leave Hindustan or drown in the ocean.”
In November 2015, he reacted to Shah Rukh Khan’s remarks against intolerance, saying “These people speak the language of terrorists. There is no difference between the language of Shah Rukh Khan and that of Hafiz Saeed. He (Khan) should remember that if a huge mass of people boycotts his films, he will also have to wander on the streets like a normal Muslim.”
14 December 2014: 6 December (Babri Masjid demolition anniversary) is a matter of valour, pride and unity for Hindus.
In June 2016 he said, “When they could not stop karsevaks from demolishing the Babri Masjid, how will they be able to stop us from carrying out the construction of the mandir?
In various speech videos, Adityanath has said, “if one Hindu dies, we will kill a 100 of (them)” and “If they (Muslims) take (marry) one Hindu girl, we will get 100 Muslim girls … in the rest of Uttar Pradesh Hindu women run away with Muslim but in Gorakhpur, Hindu men marry Muslim women and bring them home.”
At a Virat Hindu Chetna rally in Siddharthnagar in 2007-08 organised by the Hindu Yuva Vahini, Adityanath declared that Hindu culture and Muslim culture can never co-exist and that a religious war is inevitable which is why Hindus need to get organised and face this challenge in the most aggressive fashion possible. He stated that Hindu Yuva Vahini is doing the work of uniting Hindus. At the same rally a speaker called to rape corpses of Muslim women and another called to strip Muslims of voting rights.
On Women
In a detailed write up titled ‘Matrashakti — Bharatiya Shakti ke Sandarbh Mein’ on his own website, Adityanath writes that “women are not capable of being left free or independent…women need male protection from birth to death… a woman is protected in her childhood by her father, by her husband in her youth and by her son in her old age.” This idea of women being under a man’s protection all her life (father, husband, and son) is straight from the Manusmriti.
He writes, “Whereas in our shastras, the greatness of women has been described, at the same time considering their importance and their decorum and dignity, the need to give them protection is also mentioned….Just like if you leave energy free and uncontrolled and unregulated, it may become useless and destructive, similarly ‘shakti swaroopa stree’— woman as the epitome of power — does not really need freedom, but a meaningful role — woman as the epitome of power — does not really need freedom, but a meaningful role with protection and channelisation…. For only such controlled and protected women power will give birth to and raise great men and when required step out of home to the battlefield to destroy evil powers.”
Adityanath writes that women should receive education today, “Else the thoughtless storm of women freedom of the western world will drive them to an even more disastrous condition and it will hamper the creation and stability of the home and family and prevent the glorious rebuilding of the nation and motherland.”
He vehemently opposes the idea of 33% reservations for women in Parliament and Assemblies, saying “Women do already have reservations in many areas. First analyse and assess the impact of this in gram sabhas, panchayats and local bodies. Assess and then decide whether women who are in active politics, and public life like men, whether in this process they may not lose their importance and role as mothers, daughter and sisters.”
He adds, “If men acquire women-like qualities, they become gods but when women acquire men like qualities, they become (‘rakshasa’) demon like. Serious thought must be given to these issues. What if this leads to the creation of the Frankenstien’s monster?”
On Caste and Reservations
In a write up on his website titled ‘A Country Burning In The Fire of Reservation Demands,’ Adityanath elaborates on the idea that RSS leaders too periodically express: the need for a reassessment of the policy of caste-based reservations. He argues here that caste-based reservations for Dalits should be restricted to one generation. Here too he writes disapprovingly about ‘India’s Mother-power developing a strong desire for reservations’ and wonders where this will take society. He ends with a mention of the Sachar Committee report and raises the bogey of reservations for Muslims.
Japanese Encephalitis
Adityanath’s followers on social media are claiming that his efforts have reduced the occurrence of the encephalitis epidemic in Gorakhpur. Gorakhpur-based journalist Manoj Kumar Singh does a reality check, pointing out that “The central government did not release funds for two years for the payment of 108 employees of Encephalitis ward in BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur. Instead, isplaying full insensitivity towards a highly epidemic prone region, these 108 posts were scrapped in August 2016.”
Manoj Singh adds, “As per an August 2016 estimate only 30 crores were needed for maintenance of equipments, pay of doctors and paramedical staff and medicines etc in this hospital. Ten crore more were required for the ICU installation. Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel made a visit of this hospital in August 2016 till then the government had failed to allocate an amount of merely 40 crores in the annual workplan to regularly run this hospital. Even after that no substantial fund have been allocated for this hospital where 9286 patients (90 percent of them were children) have died of Encephalitis alone and thousands maimed out of 39100 admitted since 1978.”
As for claims of ‘reduced numbers,’ Manoj Singh says this is because Governments and Centre and State “are not following their own guidelines and the hospitals have stopped recording and/or reporting such cases officially. So the its now very difficult to know the exact number of encephalitis cases that have occurred in this region which includes ten districts of eastern UP and at least four districts of Bihar from where people come for treatment to this and other private hospitals in Gorakhpur. It was reported in media (Gorakhpur Newsline) that in 2015 nearly 500 cases from Kushinagar district were not recorded as Encephalitis, out of these more than 250 died of the dreaded disease.”
How Mulayam’s Opportunism Provided Impunity For Adityanath
In 2007, the SP Government headed by Mulayam Singh punished, transferred the DM Hari Om who arrested a riot-mongering Adityanath, and in sundry other ways the Mulayam Government pandered to the saffron forces, even splurging public money on them. The opportunist Mulayam Government helped Adityanath evade consequences for communal violence and hate-speech. Here are excerpts of a report from the archives of Liberation, March 2007:
“Recently, Gorakhpur and around a dozen districts adjoining it fell victim to communal violence spread by Yogi Adityanath, the local MP and his gang. Yogi has emerged as a new symbol of Hindutva offensive in the region. The fascist paratroopers of his Hindu Yuva Vahini have been targeting minorities since a decade. When the then DM of Gorakhpur arrested Yogi and his men, he along with other officials was suspended by Mulayam government. The new DM sent by Mulayam administration to Gorakhpur first visited Yogi in the jail, after taking charge. Obviously, the communal forces were emboldened and thus starting with a minor scuffle, the assault on Muslims spread to Basti, Kushi Nagar, Deoria and elsewhere.
In the name of controlling the ‘riots’, Mulayam government deployed PAC in these areas, which is notorious for its blatant anti-minority bias. With the help of PAC, HYV activists looted the houses and business complexes of minorities and set them on fire. In Padrauna, the HQ of Kushi Nagar district, CPI(ML) investigation team found that the communal violence spread there only after PAC was deployed. PAC instigated the mobs to indulge in arson and loot. A similar pattern was repeated in many other centres.
Earlier during the Mau riots also, where at least half a dozen innocent people fell victim to the communal violence, the Mulayam government had remained a mute spectator for full 72 hours and when RSS- BJP launched a mischievous misinformation campaign about Hindu massacre in Mau, the Mulayam Government did nothing to counter it. However, later the truth came out that in Mau communal violence too the key role was played by HYV.
It may appear shocking for those who believe that Mulayam Singh is fighting a messianic battle against the communal forces in UP, that the Chief Minister of UP doled out Rs. 8 crore from the Government exchequer to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for organizing a Sant Sammelan in Allahabad from February 11-13. And with this money, the most notorious of the RSS outfits, VHP has launched an aggressive fascist propaganda through posters, hoardings and so-called Sant sammelans! A PIL is pending in the Allahabad High Court, urging that the public money be reimbursed from the VHP.
The degree of strategic relations between SP and BJP can be gauged from the fact that the UP government accorded the status of state guest to BJP leaders when they assembled in Lucknow last month for the Party’s National Executive Meet. Public money was wasted on their stay in luxurious hotels. And it was this Executive Committee Meet which heralded the ‘return’ of BJP to its offensive Hindutva agenda. All sorts of rhetorical speeches were made to communally charge the atmosphere and whip up hysteria around the issues of Ram Temple, ‘Muslim appeasement’ and terrorism. Kalyan Singh, who is being projected as next Chief Minister, used highly objectionable language against the Muslim community.”
As Adityanath takes over the reins of UP, the divisive fire has started to spread. Slaughter houses have been shut down on the pretext that they are “illegal” – poor Muslims running these places will have to apply for fresh licenses. Anti-Romeo squads are indulging in full scale moral policing, harassing young men and young women out in public spaces in the name of keeping women safe. In keeping with Adityanath’s views on restricting women’s freedom, such “protection” is not only aimed at targeting Muslim youth but at restricting women’s rights. Several people, mostly Muslim, have already been arrested in UP for posting ‘objectionable’ posts about Adityanath on social media. In a video from Meerut, a Hindu woman can be seen thrashing a group of Muslim women as her husband shouts out from behind her “Your father Yogi is now CM, you’re done for.”
The thinly veiled pretence that Aditynath style Hindutva hate is ‘fringe’ while the Modi ‘mainstream’ stands for ‘development’ has been dropped. It is all too clear that Hindutva is at the core of Modi’s agenda of pro-corporate development. Progressive forces must build resistance both to the anti-people economic policies as well as the Hindutva hate agenda.
