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March 20, 2017
India: A Yogi and a CM - UP deserved better - Editorial in The Tribune
The Tribune, March 20, 2017
NO
one need fret about the choice of Yogi Adityanath, a saffron extremist
facing trial on charges of incitement to communal rioting and attempt to
murder, as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. Prime Minister Modi has
defied the conventional wisdom, once again. Every party has its
Adityanath or Azam Khan, but only the BJP arms them with such positions
and power. Those who believed in the BJP’s vikas narrative — and
disbelieved and took lightly the underlying communal streak — are in no
position to complain. They had read the UP mandate as a vote in favour
of development and demonetisation, and congratulated the voters for
disregarding caste/class politics. For the BJP it is clear the road to
2019 goes through a communal cauldron which Adityanath can be trusted to
keep simmering.
Whether the endorsement of Hindutva’s hardcore face comes from the RSS
or the PM, or both, is immaterial; political consequences will be huge
for the BJP. The party that had earlier gambled on Modi with such
stupendous success has not hesitated in placing its bets on Yogi
Adityanath, making even its moderate supporters a bit uncomfortable.
They are now forced to defend the indefensible. Anyway, the BJP has a
history of handing over chief ministerial posts to “hardliners” or even
RSS pracharaks—among them being Narendra Modi, Uma Bharti, Manohar Lal
Khattar, and more recently, Trivendra Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand. After
Yogi Adityanath, they appear harmless.
Giving power to a short-tempered, intolerant yogi is not without its
risks. None of the saner elements in Sangh Parivar or the PMO may be
able to restrain him from tearing apart the secular fabric of Uttar
Pradesh beyond a limit. The BJP had a good candidate for the top post in
Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, an able administrator with an M. Tech.
Instead the BJP has picked up a Thakur as CM and a member of the OBC and
a Brahmin as Deputy CMs, all inexperienced in administration. Academic
qualifications or administrative credentials do not seem to matter in
the larger game plan of building a divisive agenda for 2019.
