The coming islamic partition of India and what can be salvaged

[G.Subramaniam]

Eastern UP under Hindutva terror net, Govt ignoring: Sandeep Pandey

Submitted by admin4 on 16 April 2011 - 8:34pm

Indian Muslim

By TCN Special Correspondent,



Lucknow: ‘Saffron War – A War Against Nation’ – a documentary film on the communal-terror politics of BJP Lok Sabha MP and successor of Gorakhnath Peeth, Yogi Adityanath, was screened today at UP Press Club here. The film brings out the terrorist activities carried out by Hindutva organizations in the eastern Uttar Pradesh.



During the discussion following the screening, renowned social activist Dr. Sandeep Pandey alleged that, ‘this experiment is being carried out in whole eastern UP but the activities are being constantly ignored by the government’. He further said, “Yogi Adityanath and the Hindu Yuva Vahini that is supported by him, are responsible for many riots and massacres”.



On the occasion, Advocate Muhammed Shoaib said that, “The documentary Saffron War not only reveals the terrorist activities that are carried out by a specific community but also reveals how the dalits, women and children of Hindu community are prepared and conditioned with communalism”.



Joining him in discussion, Former VC, Lucknow University and Secretary, Saajhi Duniya, Prof Roop Rekha Verma said that, “Eastern U.P. is completely trapped by lumpens. Communal forces have made the whole social set up of that area completely patriarchal and against women”.



Yugal Kishor Shastri, Mahant from Ayodhya said that Yogi Adityanath is running a tradition that is completely against real Yogi tradition. His practices reflect a yogi as a lumpen. He said that this film reveals the truth of such experiments and practices.



It can be noted here that, just few days back, a Muslim youth, Sohrabuddin while going to Khalilabad was brutally killed by Hindu Yuva Vahini people.



The film has been made in Hindi and is directed by young film maker Rajeev Yadav, Shahnawaz Alam, and Lakshman Prasad under the banner of Foot Prints and Journalists’ Union for Civil Society (JUCS).



--



Watch Saffron War on youtube



It gives diarrhea to Sandeep Pandey but gives me great hope and instils confidence in me

[G.Subramaniam]

Communalism in Uttar-Pradesh

Dynamics of communal politics in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh By V.B.Rawat





Mau riots in October 2005 have shaken the entire constituency, which is famous for Banarasee saris. Mubarakpur town of this district is actually famous for weavers who are living in miserable conditions as the handloom sector faces doom from the mechanization process and demand for the Sari business reducing regularly. Mau is also known for Kalpnath Rai one of the mavericks in India politics but respected in the constituency as a ‘developmental man’. Today, Mau is represented in the UP Assembly by Mukhtar Ansari, one of the many assembly MLAs having various criminal charges. Ironically, Ansari comes from a very respected family of freedom fighters.



It is important to understand the dynamics of caste politics in Poorvanchal and how it is now looking for new identity for its operations as the continuous assertion of Dalits and backward communities have threatened the very caste and communal dynamics in the region. From Varanasi, Ghazipur to Azamgarh, Mau, Poorvanchal, once upon a time, was, domain of Communist Party of India. However, it is another matter that despite their cries for land reform, like Bihar, the comrades could not develop alternative Dalit-backward leadership in the region. Their leadership was caged in the status-quoist upper caste leadership who had large land holding and who were least bothered to disturb the existing equilibrium. The result was the emergence of new parties like Samajwadi Party, BSP and Rastriya Janata Dal in Bihar. The dominance of Bhoomhars, a powerful land owning community in both Eastern Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar, was threatened. The Thakurs and the Brahmins also felt the heat of Dalit assertion in the political circle. Unfortunately, the dominance of these upper caste communities, though, was challenged successfully by the Dalits and backwards, in the politics, the NGOs, civil Society, bureaucracy, business and trade unions, continued to be in the powerful grip of Bhoomihars, Bramins, and Thakurs. The Mafias of these communities became respected leaders of community, which allowed them unrestrained freedom to ruin the natural resources of the area. From Dhanbad to Varanasi, the operation of Coal Mafia are well known. The political connections are not necessary to be dealt here with but they are open secret. This caste Mafia did not get any threat from the Dalits and backwards, as their leaders did not take them in to account. The challenge came from another set of Muslim Mafia.



The Muslim Mafia was equally powerful and had political ambition. The Dalit, backward Muslim perception worked for them and therefore ‘secular’ politics was the best way and who could have been better secular than Mulayam Singh Yadav. He not only supported them but also brought them in his party. ‘ The only party fighting the ‘communal forces’, in the country, Mulayam would often retort and justify such elements. When disgusted with Mulayam, some of them switched to BSP for help who was more then willing to provide support. A majority of them, however, remained with the power elite at the moment, the backward caste and annihilate any one come in their way. The murders of Dalit political leader Raju Pal in Allahabad is a case example. UP has been witnessing such murderous assault on political rivals for the past few decades but one has rarely seen that even after first murder, second leader was also murdered from the same community in Allahabad, the Pal community, the shepherds, who always lived on the margins. There is no action so far. Perhaps none would ever be caught. One should not ignore the fact that a few years back Phoolan Devi was also killed on a broad day light in Delhi and her death was always a mystery.



It is under this light that for the Bhoomihar, Thakur, Brahmin communities, the best way was to go the Hindutva way and project them as the champion of the Hindu community. However, due to defeat of the Hindutva gangs and caste becoming more potent weapon then the religion, their leaders had a second thought. Many of them switched their loyalties to both the social justice parties: Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party.



One need to understand that these all had stakes in Railways and its coal business. The gang war between another Thakur from Banarase Brijesh Singh and that of Mukhtar Ansari are well known to be documented. It is alleged that Krishnanad Rai joined Brijesh Singh in their common war against Mukhtar Ansari in the region. Krishnanad Rai was BJP MLA from Mohammdabad, the traditional constituency of Mukhtar Ansari before he switched to neighboring Mau, but the war continued.



Political connections of Mafias in Uttar-Pradesh have brought the state into a shameless position where developmental and ideological perceptions mean nothing. Caste identities are being encouraged under the false garb of pride with a political manipulation in mind. Those who can capture booth and purchase the Sarpanches and district Sarpanches are in high demand. The Mafias in Uttar-Pradesh know it well that their communities are solidly behind them. They have carefully crafted Robin Hood image for themselves. They help ‘poor’ people. They have become so rich that most of them may not be involved in small time robbery or kidnapping. Since they travel in imported cars and have a huge following of their devotees, the supply for big money comes from bagging the government contract. Nobody feel betrayal if they betray the government. Hence most of them have high stakes at the government corporations, Railway contracts, timber market, coal mining, sand mining, petrol pumps, sugar factories and many more unexplored things. Looting the government funds does not create ruckus in the masses. The masses are happy in the absence of small gangsters to trouble people. Mohammdabad has 24 hour electricity whenever Mukhtar Ansari is in town. It is beyond imagination for the people of Uttar-Pradesh, particularly those living in rural areas, to have even 8 hour supply. In Seewan, Bihar, the constituency of Mohammad Shahbuddin, no doctor can extract more fee from the poor people. Colleges have sports hostel, rare for Bihar and schools open in time. There are no local gangs, which can operate that powerfully to disturb peace in the area unless he is against Shahabuddin. The Kols of Bundelkhand often narrate heroics of Dadua, another dreaded man who send at least five members of parliament and double of them to assembly in Uttar-Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. His caste men Kurmis call him a ‘rebel’, who joined rebellion to fight ‘social justice’ though the Brahmins of the region consider him a dacoit. Traveling to Mau recently, I was amazed to hear from a Brahmin neighbor about the greatness of Baba, Hari Shankar Tiwari, now and a respected Minister in Mulayam Singh government.



The fight between two gangs in Ghazipur has taken a new dimension. The Bhoomihars feel that the Muslim mafia can take over their domain. As large chunk of Dalits have shifted loyalty from their Bhoomihar bosses to the Muslims, a new strategy was being developed in eastern Uttar-Pradesh. Most of the upper caste communist leader could not help Dalits in getting their rights particularly land rights though they all claimed to have worked for the same. Secondly, none of the major parties could develop second rung leadership which could be called as representative in nature therefore Dalits found their way in Bahujan Samaj Party while backwards went with Mulayam’s Samajwadi party. This polarization has threatened the very base of the upper caste leadership in eastern Uttar-Pradesh. As caste polarization is not helping any one, the best way is to convert this gang war and caste polarization into bigger units of religious polarization. This suits both the Hindutva gangsters and the thugs of secularism in eastern Uttar-Pradesh.



The Killing of Krishnanand Rai, in Mohammdabad gave BJP bigger opportunity to present him as a Hindu leader and its president Raj Nath Singh started a Nyaya Yatra and sat on Dharana in Varanasi. Rajnath Singh was trying to revive the old upper caste loyalties to his party, which Mulayam Singh has taken in the form of people like Raja Bhaiya for Thakurs, Amarmani Tripathi and Hari Shankar Tiwari for Brahmins.



Mau Riots



Mau was part of district Azamgarh, land of revolutionary activist writer Rahul Sankrityayan. Today, not many know Sankrityayan’s struggle against caste. He is more known in his community or so-called ‘progressive circles’ of Bhoomihars, Brahmins and Thakurs. It is tragic but then there are many tragedies happening here.



Mau is also the land where Muslim live in sizeable number. They have political control over the Mau town-ship and normally have their Chairman of the municipal corporation. In the Mau town ship, Muslims are owner of looms and have fruit and vegetable vendors. They are also in the meat market. The commercial interest of Muslim vegetable vendors collide straight with the Khatiques, a Dalit community involved in meat selling business. It is equally important to understand the Khatiq also sale Pork. This contradiction is beautifully used by the Hindutva forces in fermenting riots and involving Khatiques in it. This is the modus operandi of the communal forces as they know well it would be difficult to fight the Muslims directly thereby involve the Dalits. Over the years, the Dalits and backward have got highly politicized in the cow belt and both of them look towards aliening with Muslims. The attraction of Hindutva in backward communities is not new. Except for Yadavas, who have been aliening with Samajwadi Party, and the oppressed backward communities with BSP, powerful Kurmi and Lodhs have found their ally in the Hindutva. Dalits, by and large, have remained outside the Hindutva fold therefore the power elite is playing its dubious role by making a dent in this relationship and the customs come handy for them.



Burdened Heritage



Riots may occur all of a sudden but if they go beyond a day, it clearly reflects that involvement of state. In Mau, the locals inform us, administration kept quiet during the riots. The issue of administration would be dealt separately. Let us first discuss why none of us including seculars (if they are) ever challenges the root cause of the riots. We all know that Hindus and Muslims fight for not only cows and pigs but also for commercial interests. It is well-documented fact that most of the communal riots in India have occurred in areas where Muslims have a sizeable presence and well developed business. Kanpur, Bhiwandi, Malegaon, Bhagalpur, Ahemdebad, Mumbai, Moradabad, Meerut, Bijnaur and Mau. Can any one deny that there would not have been business interest? It could be the other way round. Instigate sensibilities and settle business scores. Now, what are the pretensions to start a riot? Either there will be a rumor that the head of killed cow was found in a temple or the meat of pig found in a mosque. This apart, other cause of communal disturbances is totally administrative in nature. In this country, the ‘ religious sensibilities’ are easily available. Loudspeakers are used to deliberately provoke the ‘anti’ group. Processions become pretence for disturbances.



Mau has been the victim of a strange and condemnable tradition where not only the administration failed but also the right-minded people. A tradition is kept alive for the sake of religion and none of the parties ever felt that such obnoxious traditions even if a court ruling is on it, out dated. Shamelessly, during the Bharat Milap (Ram Leela ceremonies), the Hindus must kick the mosque several times. The Muslim count their steps and are ready to retaliate if there is more kicking. Similarly, during the Moharram’s Tajia ceremony, the Muslims are allowed to climb 3 stairs of a Sanskrit Pathshala nearby. Here are the Hindus are ready to retaliate if there is an effort by the Muslim to climb the fourth step. Those reading it might feel this narration awkward but the fact is that we have not been able to condemn a celebration, which means not victory of each other but humiliation of each other. Whatever might have been a court judgment; time has come to stop this nonsense. Over the years, the politics of processions and loudspeakers have damaged the social fabric. Indian state as well as civil society remains mute to such notorious system where everything is fare in the name of public sensibilities and religious values. Can the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains come together and decide against taking public for granted for their so-called religious programmes. I am not writing about Christians and Buddhists as nothing particularly is found against them so far.



Now, the fact of the matter is that during the Bharat Milap ceremony Muslims had objection to loudspeaker usage as they were preparing for the Friday Namaz. But does the riots started just for that. As I said, sensibilities and sentiments are best work for politicians. One must not forget that in Mau town the local municipality is under Samajwadi Party’s Arashad Jamal, whose own political interest make him different to that of Mukhtar Ansari who is originally from Mohammdabad. Then there are Hindutva groups who have their own politics but with a larger game plan in the Eastern Uttar-Pradesh. While it is amply clear that riots will always occur if the administration does not take stern action against the unlawful activities yet the conspicuous silence of the so-called secular reports on the issue of Muslim Mafia strengthen the hands of the Hindutva rioters who blame not only the Muslims but also the seculars for every ills of the country. It is important to understand that like any other community and caste, Muslims of Mau are also fascinated by Mukhtar Ansari. He is their hero. Let us not be hypocrite. During my investigations most of the Dalits and Hindus blamed Mukhtar Ansari for the riots. The Muslim riot victims appreciated the role of Mukhtar Ansari. ‘ We were not given food for 72 hours. It is only after Mukhtar came, the jail authorities gave us food, said a group of Muslims who have been charge sheeted for instigating the riots.



One fact is there. Who ever spread the riots; the apathy of the administration cannot be ignored. And administration cannot remain mute without the connivance of the higher ups. It is not a point to say who lost what. I visited Muslim bustees totally lost, their faces grims and uncertain about their future. I have seen Dalits and their shops burnt. Their anger. The report is that most of the arrested people for rioting are either Dalits or Muslims. Those the champion of Hindutva and Islam remained totally out of bound for the administration.



Mahant Aditya Nath, a Thakur from the Uttarakhand and now the head priest of Gorakhanath temple tried to fish in troubled water. He had always been uniting the Hindu youths to prepare them against anti national forces. We all know who are anti national and what is the threat perception for them. With Krishna Nand Rai’s murder and Mau’s riots, Aditya Nath is trying to champion the cause of Hindutva. Everywhere, the Bajrang Dal is activated. This suits both Mulayam and BJP well. One would be championing the Muslim cause and the other the Hindutva cause and all others will be side trapped, but things are not that easy at the moment.



Story of riot victims



It is reported that over 300 houses/shops were looted during the riots. According to the locals it was one of the worst riots in Mau’s history and it has shaken the confidence of those who always cherished the mutual understanding between the two communities. Though, newspapers have widely reported this riot as ‘ massacre of Hindus’, the fact of the matter is that Muslims too bore the brunt of high handedness of police. A visit to Muslim localities of Ali Nagar’s Badi Kamharia and Rahjani’s Chhoti Kamharia present gory tails of complete antipathy of the administration and destruction and loss of property and human lives.



According to Hamir Hamaja who lost his wife in the riots “ every body was at home. It was Friday. I saw many people coming across the railway lines. I was coming alone. I told my wife to go. We have no children. I am 70 years of age. They started pelting stone at our side. They were more than 5000 people and shouting ‘ Har Har Mahadev’. The blue uniformed gun trotting policemen (Rapid Action Force) remained mute. At 5.30 in the evening they broke my home. I feared and shouted ‘ Allah oh Akbar.. They hit at my head. I felt unconscious. I do not know how some friends took me away immediately. After two days when I returned home, to my shock, I found my wife Anwari cut into three pieces.” Hamir is a vegitable seller and tears flow from his eyes narrating this incident. ‘ What is there for me now, he says.



Kamarunnisa, 50 wife of a much older man Manzoor has six children. She earn by working in the kothis as a domestic help and earn around Rs 600/- per month. Her husband is deaf and is too frail to work. The attackers destroyed her house, looted it with Almirah, fans, cycles etc. “ My daughter Jahan Ara, 11 years feared too much during the attack and hid herself in the ‘murgibada’. It was too suffocating for her to remain inside that dirt and she died after some time.” Her husband fell on the railway lines. The police arrested him and kept him in Jail for 18 days. Her son remained in Jail for 24 days. Says Kamarunnisa, “ My husband was kept in police station for 48 hours with out anything, just 100 gram roti.



“ The goons were fully protected by the police. We ran away with our children when they shouted, kill the women. We expected the police to act but they kept quite. My daughter died of fear, as none was there to save her. My grand daughter Noor Jahan, aged 5, had to be given 3 bottle of glucose in the hospital. Ayisya Begum 25, had been given 8 bottles of glucose to save their lives.



Tahir Ahmed, a teacher and local community worker said, “ I saw a crowd of over four thousand people crossing the railway line. We had small knives and we knew well that it would not work. I was standing at the roof- top of my house. I saw 25-30 Rapid Action Force personnel and felt secure. Soon they surrounded Nawabpura. I came on the ground that is in the middle of this bustee. Soon, I was surrounded by a group of people crying kill this bearded man. We were just 75-80 people and cannot face a crowd of five thousand people. We tried to run and cross the railway line but RAF called us and charged us under 302.”



It is shameful to see innocent faces charged under 302. Abdul Ali who does not seem to be over 19 year of age (according to him also) and work in powerloom is charged under this section. Kamarunnisa’s deaf husband and her son who are also charge sheeted in 302. Strange are the case of police that they are filing charges against those who have not only lost their property but also some of their nears and dears ones.



Shambhunath Chauhan is perhaps only non Muslims and to be precise, a backward community person living in the locality of the Ansaries. Many in the community blame him for guiding the rioters but Shambhunath refutes this. ‘ In fact, I was wearing a lungi when the crowd came and shouted pull his lungi, kill him. And when they tried to kill me, I shouted I am a Hindu. They spared me but my house was also looted.” The Muslims alleged that Shambhunath cooked up cases and guided people and got good

Compensation.



It is alarming to see that to visit these two areas of Muslims, one needs to pass through two Dalit-backward bustees. There is a narrow passage and therefore Muslims fear that their women could become easy target. There has been no harm to these localities, which clearly indicate that the rioters had well-connected network and they were well aware of the geographical situation of the area.

[G.Subramaniam]

Communalism in Uttar-Pradesh

Dynamics of communal politics in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh By V.B.Rawat





Mau riots in October 2005 have shaken the entire constituency, which is famous for Banarasee saris. Mubarakpur town of this district is actually famous for weavers who are living in miserable conditions as the handloom sector faces doom from the mechanization process and demand for the Sari business reducing regularly. Mau is also known for Kalpnath Rai one of the mavericks in India politics but respected in the constituency as a ‘developmental man’. Today, Mau is represented in the UP Assembly by Mukhtar Ansari, one of the many assembly MLAs having various criminal charges. Ironically, Ansari comes from a very respected family of freedom fighters.



It is important to understand the dynamics of caste politics in Poorvanchal and how it is now looking for new identity for its operations as the continuous assertion of Dalits and backward communities have threatened the very caste and communal dynamics in the region. From Varanasi, Ghazipur to Azamgarh, Mau, Poorvanchal, once upon a time, was, domain of Communist Party of India. However, it is another matter that despite their cries for land reform, like Bihar, the comrades could not develop alternative Dalit-backward leadership in the region. Their leadership was caged in the status-quoist upper caste leadership who had large land holding and who were least bothered to disturb the existing equilibrium. The result was the emergence of new parties like Samajwadi Party, BSP and Rastriya Janata Dal in Bihar. The dominance of Bhoomhars, a powerful land owning community in both Eastern Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar, was threatened. The Thakurs and the Brahmins also felt the heat of Dalit assertion in the political circle. Unfortunately, the dominance of these upper caste communities, though, was challenged successfully by the Dalits and backwards, in the politics, the NGOs, civil Society, bureaucracy, business and trade unions, continued to be in the powerful grip of Bhoomihars, Bramins, and Thakurs. The Mafias of these communities became respected leaders of community, which allowed them unrestrained freedom to ruin the natural resources of the area. From Dhanbad to Varanasi, the operation of Coal Mafia are well known. The political connections are not necessary to be dealt here with but they are open secret. This caste Mafia did not get any threat from the Dalits and backwards, as their leaders did not take them in to account. The challenge came from another set of Muslim Mafia.



The Muslim Mafia was equally powerful and had political ambition. The Dalit, backward Muslim perception worked for them and therefore ‘secular’ politics was the best way and who could have been better secular than Mulayam Singh Yadav. He not only supported them but also brought them in his party. ‘ The only party fighting the ‘communal forces’, in the country, Mulayam would often retort and justify such elements. When disgusted with Mulayam, some of them switched to BSP for help who was more then willing to provide support. A majority of them, however, remained with the power elite at the moment, the backward caste and annihilate any one come in their way. The murders of Dalit political leader Raju Pal in Allahabad is a case example. UP has been witnessing such murderous assault on political rivals for the past few decades but one has rarely seen that even after first murder, second leader was also murdered from the same community in Allahabad, the Pal community, the shepherds, who always lived on the margins. There is no action so far. Perhaps none would ever be caught. One should not ignore the fact that a few years back Phoolan Devi was also killed on a broad day light in Delhi and her death was always a mystery.



It is under this light that for the Bhoomihar, Thakur, Brahmin communities, the best way was to go the Hindutva way and project them as the champion of the Hindu community. However, due to defeat of the Hindutva gangs and caste becoming more potent weapon then the religion, their leaders had a second thought. Many of them switched their loyalties to both the social justice parties: Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party.



One need to understand that these all had stakes in Railways and its coal business. The gang war between another Thakur from Banarase Brijesh Singh and that of Mukhtar Ansari are well known to be documented. It is alleged that Krishnanad Rai joined Brijesh Singh in their common war against Mukhtar Ansari in the region. Krishnanad Rai was BJP MLA from Mohammdabad, the traditional constituency of Mukhtar Ansari before he switched to neighboring Mau, but the war continued.



Political connections of Mafias in Uttar-Pradesh have brought the state into a shameless position where developmental and ideological perceptions mean nothing. Caste identities are being encouraged under the false garb of pride with a political manipulation in mind. Those who can capture booth and purchase the Sarpanches and district Sarpanches are in high demand. The Mafias in Uttar-Pradesh know it well that their communities are solidly behind them. They have carefully crafted Robin Hood image for themselves. They help ‘poor’ people. They have become so rich that most of them may not be involved in small time robbery or kidnapping. Since they travel in imported cars and have a huge following of their devotees, the supply for big money comes from bagging the government contract. Nobody feel betrayal if they betray the government. Hence most of them have high stakes at the government corporations, Railway contracts, timber market, coal mining, sand mining, petrol pumps, sugar factories and many more unexplored things. Looting the government funds does not create ruckus in the masses. The masses are happy in the absence of small gangsters to trouble people. Mohammdabad has 24 hour electricity whenever Mukhtar Ansari is in town. It is beyond imagination for the people of Uttar-Pradesh, particularly those living in rural areas, to have even 8 hour supply. In Seewan, Bihar, the constituency of Mohammad Shahbuddin, no doctor can extract more fee from the poor people. Colleges have sports hostel, rare for Bihar and schools open in time. There are no local gangs, which can operate that powerfully to disturb peace in the area unless he is against Shahabuddin. The Kols of Bundelkhand often narrate heroics of Dadua, another dreaded man who send at least five members of parliament and double of them to assembly in Uttar-Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. His caste men Kurmis call him a ‘rebel’, who joined rebellion to fight ‘social justice’ though the Brahmins of the region consider him a dacoit. Traveling to Mau recently, I was amazed to hear from a Brahmin neighbor about the greatness of Baba, Hari Shankar Tiwari, now and a respected Minister in Mulayam Singh government.



The fight between two gangs in Ghazipur has taken a new dimension. The Bhoomihars feel that the Muslim mafia can take over their domain. As large chunk of Dalits have shifted loyalty from their Bhoomihar bosses to the Muslims, a new strategy was being developed in eastern Uttar-Pradesh. Most of the upper caste communist leader could not help Dalits in getting their rights particularly land rights though they all claimed to have worked for the same. Secondly, none of the major parties could develop second rung leadership which could be called as representative in nature therefore Dalits found their way in Bahujan Samaj Party while backwards went with Mulayam’s Samajwadi party. This polarization has threatened the very base of the upper caste leadership in eastern Uttar-Pradesh. As caste polarization is not helping any one, the best way is to convert this gang war and caste polarization into bigger units of religious polarization. This suits both the Hindutva gangsters and the thugs of secularism in eastern Uttar-Pradesh.



The Killing of Krishnanand Rai, in Mohammdabad gave BJP bigger opportunity to present him as a Hindu leader and its president Raj Nath Singh started a Nyaya Yatra and sat on Dharana in Varanasi. Rajnath Singh was trying to revive the old upper caste loyalties to his party, which Mulayam Singh has taken in the form of people like Raja Bhaiya for Thakurs, Amarmani Tripathi and Hari Shankar Tiwari for Brahmins.



Mau Riots



Mau was part of district Azamgarh, land of revolutionary activist writer Rahul Sankrityayan. Today, not many know Sankrityayan’s struggle against caste. He is more known in his community or so-called ‘progressive circles’ of Bhoomihars, Brahmins and Thakurs. It is tragic but then there are many tragedies happening here.



Mau is also the land where Muslim live in sizeable number. They have political control over the Mau town-ship and normally have their Chairman of the municipal corporation. In the Mau town ship, Muslims are owner of looms and have fruit and vegetable vendors. They are also in the meat market. The commercial interest of Muslim vegetable vendors collide straight with the Khatiques, a Dalit community involved in meat selling business. It is equally important to understand the Khatiq also sale Pork. This contradiction is beautifully used by the Hindutva forces in fermenting riots and involving Khatiques in it. This is the modus operandi of the communal forces as they know well it would be difficult to fight the Muslims directly thereby involve the Dalits. Over the years, the Dalits and backward have got highly politicized in the cow belt and both of them look towards aliening with Muslims. The attraction of Hindutva in backward communities is not new. Except for Yadavas, who have been aliening with Samajwadi Party, and the oppressed backward communities with BSP, powerful Kurmi and Lodhs have found their ally in the Hindutva. Dalits, by and large, have remained outside the Hindutva fold therefore the power elite is playing its dubious role by making a dent in this relationship and the customs come handy for them.



Burdened Heritage



Riots may occur all of a sudden but if they go beyond a day, it clearly reflects that involvement of state. In Mau, the locals inform us, administration kept quiet during the riots. The issue of administration would be dealt separately. Let us first discuss why none of us including seculars (if they are) ever challenges the root cause of the riots. We all know that Hindus and Muslims fight for not only cows and pigs but also for commercial interests. It is well-documented fact that most of the communal riots in India have occurred in areas where Muslims have a sizeable presence and well developed business. Kanpur, Bhiwandi, Malegaon, Bhagalpur, Ahemdebad, Mumbai, Moradabad, Meerut, Bijnaur and Mau. Can any one deny that there would not have been business interest? It could be the other way round. Instigate sensibilities and settle business scores. Now, what are the pretensions to start a riot? Either there will be a rumor that the head of killed cow was found in a temple or the meat of pig found in a mosque. This apart, other cause of communal disturbances is totally administrative in nature. In this country, the ‘ religious sensibilities’ are easily available. Loudspeakers are used to deliberately provoke the ‘anti’ group. Processions become pretence for disturbances.



Mau has been the victim of a strange and condemnable tradition where not only the administration failed but also the right-minded people. A tradition is kept alive for the sake of religion and none of the parties ever felt that such obnoxious traditions even if a court ruling is on it, out dated. Shamelessly, during the Bharat Milap (Ram Leela ceremonies), the Hindus must kick the mosque several times. The Muslim count their steps and are ready to retaliate if there is more kicking. Similarly, during the Moharram’s Tajia ceremony, the Muslims are allowed to climb 3 stairs of a Sanskrit Pathshala nearby. Here are the Hindus are ready to retaliate if there is an effort by the Muslim to climb the fourth step. Those reading it might feel this narration awkward but the fact is that we have not been able to condemn a celebration, which means not victory of each other but humiliation of each other. Whatever might have been a court judgment; time has come to stop this nonsense. Over the years, the politics of processions and loudspeakers have damaged the social fabric. Indian state as well as civil society remains mute to such notorious system where everything is fare in the name of public sensibilities and religious values. Can the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains come together and decide against taking public for granted for their so-called religious programmes. I am not writing about Christians and Buddhists as nothing particularly is found against them so far.



Now, the fact of the matter is that during the Bharat Milap ceremony Muslims had objection to loudspeaker usage as they were preparing for the Friday Namaz. But does the riots started just for that. As I said, sensibilities and sentiments are best work for politicians. One must not forget that in Mau town the local municipality is under Samajwadi Party’s Arashad Jamal, whose own political interest make him different to that of Mukhtar Ansari who is originally from Mohammdabad. Then there are Hindutva groups who have their own politics but with a larger game plan in the Eastern Uttar-Pradesh. While it is amply clear that riots will always occur if the administration does not take stern action against the unlawful activities yet the conspicuous silence of the so-called secular reports on the issue of Muslim Mafia strengthen the hands of the Hindutva rioters who blame not only the Muslims but also the seculars for every ills of the country. It is important to understand that like any other community and caste, Muslims of Mau are also fascinated by Mukhtar Ansari. He is their hero. Let us not be hypocrite. During my investigations most of the Dalits and Hindus blamed Mukhtar Ansari for the riots. The Muslim riot victims appreciated the role of Mukhtar Ansari. ‘ We were not given food for 72 hours. It is only after Mukhtar came, the jail authorities gave us food, said a group of Muslims who have been charge sheeted for instigating the riots.



One fact is there. Who ever spread the riots; the apathy of the administration cannot be ignored. And administration cannot remain mute without the connivance of the higher ups. It is not a point to say who lost what. I visited Muslim bustees totally lost, their faces grims and uncertain about their future. I have seen Dalits and their shops burnt. Their anger. The report is that most of the arrested people for rioting are either Dalits or Muslims. Those the champion of Hindutva and Islam remained totally out of bound for the administration.



Mahant Aditya Nath, a Thakur from the Uttarakhand and now the head priest of Gorakhanath temple tried to fish in troubled water. He had always been uniting the Hindu youths to prepare them against anti national forces. We all know who are anti national and what is the threat perception for them. With Krishna Nand Rai’s murder and Mau’s riots, Aditya Nath is trying to champion the cause of Hindutva. Everywhere, the Bajrang Dal is activated. This suits both Mulayam and BJP well. One would be championing the Muslim cause and the other the Hindutva cause and all others will be side trapped, but things are not that easy at the moment.



Story of riot victims



It is reported that over 300 houses/shops were looted during the riots. According to the locals it was one of the worst riots in Mau’s history and it has shaken the confidence of those who always cherished the mutual understanding between the two communities. Though, newspapers have widely reported this riot as ‘ massacre of Hindus’, the fact of the matter is that Muslims too bore the brunt of high handedness of police. A visit to Muslim localities of Ali Nagar’s Badi Kamharia and Rahjani’s Chhoti Kamharia present gory tails of complete antipathy of the administration and destruction and loss of property and human lives.



According to Hamir Hamaja who lost his wife in the riots “ every body was at home. It was Friday. I saw many people coming across the railway lines. I was coming alone. I told my wife to go. We have no children. I am 70 years of age. They started pelting stone at our side. They were more than 5000 people and shouting ‘ Har Har Mahadev’. The blue uniformed gun trotting policemen (Rapid Action Force) remained mute. At 5.30 in the evening they broke my home. I feared and shouted ‘ Allah oh Akbar.. They hit at my head. I felt unconscious. I do not know how some friends took me away immediately. After two days when I returned home, to my shock, I found my wife Anwari cut into three pieces.” Hamir is a vegitable seller and tears flow from his eyes narrating this incident. ‘ What is there for me now, he says.



Kamarunnisa, 50 wife of a much older man Manzoor has six children. She earn by working in the kothis as a domestic help and earn around Rs 600/- per month. Her husband is deaf and is too frail to work. The attackers destroyed her house, looted it with Almirah, fans, cycles etc. “ My daughter Jahan Ara, 11 years feared too much during the attack and hid herself in the ‘murgibada’. It was too suffocating for her to remain inside that dirt and she died after some time.” Her husband fell on the railway lines. The police arrested him and kept him in Jail for 18 days. Her son remained in Jail for 24 days. Says Kamarunnisa, “ My husband was kept in police station for 48 hours with out anything, just 100 gram roti.



“ The goons were fully protected by the police. We ran away with our children when they shouted, kill the women. We expected the police to act but they kept quite. My daughter died of fear, as none was there to save her. My grand daughter Noor Jahan, aged 5, had to be given 3 bottle of glucose in the hospital. Ayisya Begum 25, had been given 8 bottles of glucose to save their lives.



Tahir Ahmed, a teacher and local community worker said, “ I saw a crowd of over four thousand people crossing the railway line. We had small knives and we knew well that it would not work. I was standing at the roof- top of my house. I saw 25-30 Rapid Action Force personnel and felt secure. Soon they surrounded Nawabpura. I came on the ground that is in the middle of this bustee. Soon, I was surrounded by a group of people crying kill this bearded man. We were just 75-80 people and cannot face a crowd of five thousand people. We tried to run and cross the railway line but RAF called us and charged us under 302.”



It is shameful to see innocent faces charged under 302. Abdul Ali who does not seem to be over 19 year of age (according to him also) and work in powerloom is charged under this section. Kamarunnisa’s deaf husband and her son who are also charge sheeted in 302. Strange are the case of police that they are filing charges against those who have not only lost their property but also some of their nears and dears ones.



Shambhunath Chauhan is perhaps only non Muslims and to be precise, a backward community person living in the locality of the Ansaries. Many in the community blame him for guiding the rioters but Shambhunath refutes this. ‘ In fact, I was wearing a lungi when the crowd came and shouted pull his lungi, kill him. And when they tried to kill me, I shouted I am a Hindu. They spared me but my house was also looted.” The Muslims alleged that Shambhunath cooked up cases and guided people and got good

Compensation.



It is alarming to see that to visit these two areas of Muslims, one needs to pass through two Dalit-backward bustees. There is a narrow passage and therefore Muslims fear that their women could become easy target. There has been no harm to these localities, which clearly indicate that the rioters had well-connected network and they were well aware of the geographical situation of the area.

[G.Subramaniam]

Hindu Case: In Salahabad area the house of Yadav family was looted and one person was killed. This has provoked violence. Mahendra, a Dalit activist see it as a conspiracy. He sees a clear effort of making Adityanath being made as a leader of Hindus and Mulayam Singh as protagonist of Muslim. Many Dalit shops have been looted and their business was target mercilessly. A large number of Dalit and backward social activist at the moment have openly blamed Mukhtar Ansari and Mulayam Singh Yadav as the real villain in this game. Dalit here allege that since the Muslims by and large were shifting their loyalty to BSP, such a split was eminent. The worst hit Dalit area has been Rauza where shops of Khatiqs and Chamars bore the brunt of violence. Khatiq as mentioned were meat seller and Chamar had leather business. One social activist who did not want to be quoted mentioned that Muslim feel ‘empowered’ with Mukhtar and therefore do not really care for the administration once they get signal from him. Many of the activist feel that Mukhtar was in fact not responsible for the riots and he was by best trying to avoid the riots. They also alleged that Mukhtar became victim of the well-orchestrated plan of the bigger groups trying to spread their wings in the area. Many feel that there was no political gains for Mukhtar in these riots while other rebut the charges saying that it was a matter of politics and every actor in this was looking for his own constituency of future.



There is another twist that a large number of shops owned by Dalits and backward in the city areas are owned by the Muslims who pay a meager rent of those areas, which are prime location areas. Therefore, resentment against the Muslim and Dalit tenants respectively was reflected in many areas where shops had been burnt. Hindus now feel that the Muslims are amassing weapons and that the riots can break out any day while Muslims clearly feel that the Hindus have gobbled all the money meant for riot victims. Muslims have also lost faith in the police force though they seem to be happy with current administration.



Where was State: For 72 hours there was no law and order in Mau says Shree Ram Nikumb a noted social activist here who was threatened by the Sangh Parivar for not working among the Muslim. Nikumb says that he gave shelter to two Muslim families. It is another matter that Nikumb live in a Muslim dominated locality and has very cordial relations there. The district magistrate and other authorities did not work in coordination resulting in media frenzy reports of ‘massacre’ of Hindus. As happen during the communal disturbances, the authorities do not act on a simple administrative issue and later presume that Muslims are the originator of the violence. The result is police and paramilitary forces become mute to retaliating ‘Hindu’ mobs incited by the political interest groups. For example one may feel that that in the main city the violence might have involved both the Hindus and Muslims and both the communities or their gangsters targeted financial and commercial interest of each other but how come the Muslim localities became target and no police action taken against the rioters. It is equally shocking that these Muslim localities are surrounded by Dalit bustees and nothing had happened to these bustees clearly those who attacked the area knew about these and had planned very well on the issue.



The Hindu groups were ready to spread all kind of rumor that administration is totally under the knees of Muslims or say Mukhtar Ansari, who happens to be the local Member of legislative assembly. One does not know what Mulayam Singh Yadav and his secular brigade think of this but definitely Mau is a big blot on his political career.





Conclusion:



It may look a small incident in comparison to Gujarat but the state must not forget that this incident has the potential to trigger communal disturbances in entire Poorvanchal. We must not ignore the fact that Poorvanchal today is under constant observation of international agencies. Dalits are asserting themselves and still we hear regularly deaths in the name of hunger, and other diseases. The Status quo is being threatened in this region of ‘revolution’ caged into the upper caste mindset. Poorvanchal is trying to get out of the upper caste feudal nexus and the more it does so the caste polarization would pose threat to both the Muslim interests and Hindu interest groups. It is basically a denial to Dalits who are exploring their own leadership and refusing to be under either the upper caste Hindu leadership or Muslim feudal leadership. The state must act as protector of the people and not allow such gangs taking leadership of both Muslim or Hindu communities. It is also time for communities to understand the dangers of communalism for the fight of two gangs must not take the shape of communal battle. People must not feel that since the gangsters are not hurting them directly, therefore they become idols or their heroes. Any effort to gain from this by the Hindutva gangs must be exposed in the similar way as Mulayam’s projection as a protector of Muslims. Muslims or Hindus, both must think that the state has to fulfill its responsibilities and both the chief minister and his government are not doing any favour if they are protecting the law and order. The upcoming communal violence bills must contain stringent measures against instigating communalism by political parties. Their recognition must be seized and police officers and district magistrates must be warned of dismissal from the services if they buckle under political pressure. They must be seen working to uphold the secular principles of the state. Time has come to seriously ponder over the representation of minorities and Dalits in our police, paramilitary and administrative services. The more we delay this issue and run away from the reality, bigger will be challenges. The forces would be communalized. We need an egalitarian, secular force and police administration and without participation of Muslims, Christians and other minorities including Dalits, it would always be exploited by the majority community sentiments. Meanwhile, civil society, social organizations, academics should focus on bringing the different communities together and talking of their differences and issues to iron them out otherwise the gang war in Poorvanchal would always turn into a communal affair, damaging peace and communal harmony of the region.







* Poorvanchal : Eastern Uttar Pradesh consisting of district Banarase, Allahabad, Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh, Deoria, Kushinagar, Sonebhadra, Gorakhpur etc

[G.Subramaniam]

People's Democracy



(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)



Vol. XXXI

No. 06



February 11, 2007



The Yogi And The Fanatic

Will Eastern UP Be The Next Gujarat?



Subhash Gatade



GORAKHPUR, a district in UP bordering Nepal and one which had reached national headlines during the anti-colonial struggle for its various militant interventions, is today making news altogether for different reasons. Gone are the days when the imagery of the nascent Indian nation had caught the imagination of the masses, and gone are the days when the region was reverberating with anti-feudal and anti-British slogans; all that is passé today. Today the slogans have achieved a majoritarian slant and talk of building a Hindu Rashtra or of making the whole area the citadel of a particular brand of Hindutva where the writ of only the local MP, who also happens to be the mahant of a famous mutt belonging to the Nath tradition, runs.



UNFOLDING SCENARIO



The unfolding scenario was once again evident to the outside world when this 'firebrand' MP, Yogi Adityanath, organised a three day international conclave named 'Virat Hindu Mahasammelan' on December 22-24, 2006, here. It 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 500 delegates from Nepal. Ranging from Swami Nishchalanand Saraswati (the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth, Puri) to Ashok Singhal (international president, VHP) or Keshar Singh (an ex-general of the Nepalese army) to Chinmayanand (a former union minister), it had brought together a motley combination of sadhus, politicos and activists of the Hindutva brigade together to discuss the “challenges present before Hinduism.”



The congregation not only called for declaration of Nepal as a “Hindu state” and restoration of monarchy there but also resolved for the construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya, “liberation” of the Kashi and Mathura shrines, and ban on cow slaughter. It also criticised the Indian government’s stand on Nepal and said no political party was taking the Maoist 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.



Another 'highlight' of the Mahasammelan was that it was organised parallel to the three day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was billed as the “party's grandest show of unity and strength in recent times.” And while the BJP, in its executive meeting, seemed to waver initially on the agenda of Ram temple construction at Ayodhya, the Mahasammelan --- which was in a sense a show of defiance by its own MP --- seemed to focus itself on these very agendas over which the BJP seemed to be going soft because of political exigencies. It is a different matter that at the end of its meeting the party itself discovered the “merits” of raising this issue and riding whole hog on a rabid Hindutva agenda.



PARALLELS WITH GUJARAT



The question arises: whether the ‘party with a difference,’ which wears ‘discipline’ on its sleeves, has decided to tail its own ‘defiant’ MP or it is part of a wider gameplan of the Hindutva brigade which has seen for itself the ‘success’ of this model in this part of UP --- a model which has the potential of making it another Hindutva laboratory? It is for everyone to see that the experiment unfolded in this part of Eastern UP in a time of declining fortunes of the Hindutva brigade, and has brightened its prospects in a miraculous manner.



It was a marker of things to come that when Gujarat was burning in the aftermath of Godhra, with the fire directed at minorities, Gorakhpur was not far behind. Many parallel instances of terrorising the minorities and razing their houses to ground, all under the leadership of this 'firebrand' Yogi, had then come to light. Loud proclamations of turning Gorakhpur into Godhra-Gujarat were also heard. In the post-Godhra bandh, a Hindu Mahasabha leader considered as the right hand man of the Yogi had in his speech declared: “If only yogiji permits us we will repay a hundred for each.” The local MLA, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, had defiantly declared: “Gorakhpur is a Hindu Rashtra. Yogiji is both its president and prime minister.” His speech was widely reported in papers.



In an article “Yogi: Danger to BJP” by Yogesh Mishra, in its issue of February 24, 2003, the weekly Outlook (Hindi) had unambiguously stated: "...the similarity of Gorakhpur and Gujarat does not stop at the identity of their initials. On a closer look, still more similarities have begun to appear... If there is a Modi there, we have an upcoming hero, the 'Yogi' here."



The said write-up also focussed on a similar international gathering of the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh, which was held at Gorakhpur itself in February 2003. (It would be opportune to add that this was the same Mahasangh that organised the latest Mahasammelan also.) A point worth noting about the February 2003 Mahasammelan was that all the top RSS leaders had hastened to reach there. Despite his ill-health, RSS ex-supremo Rajju Bhaiyya as well as the VHP’s Ashok Singhal had made it a point to participate in the programme. Singhal was so overwhelmed by the success of the meeting that he declared the Yogi as the new symbol of the Hindu youth.



THE YOGI’S TACTICS



The power the Yogi wields over the top brass of BJP as well, was evident once again a few months later when the then deputy prime minister, L K Advani, accepted his invitation to Gorakhpur, a move that upset the state BJP leaders. These leaders were miffed when Adityanath opposed a BJP candidate in the 2002 assembly elections. By this swift move, the mahant thus forced other BJP leaders to attend his durbar tp pay their obeisance.



After all, what is so significant about the Yogi to have helped make him cynosure of all eyes in the Hindutva brigade?



Adityanath, who at 26 became the youngest legislator in the 12th Lok Sabha (1998) and got re-elected twice after that, has helped change the situation in and around Gorakhpur in a qualitative manner. It is the unique nature of his intervention which has on the one hand tried to carve out alliances, cutting across castes lines, by raising their economic demands and has on the other hand made him a ‘Hindutva Robinhood’ who only could redeem the Hindus of their sufferings. This is what has made it possible for him to widen his base. In this process he has been greatly helped by his long association with the Gorakshanath Peetham. His anointment to the mahant's post to this Nath Peeth, which has been very popular in this region for centuries and enjoys respect among mainly the subaltern classes, has definitely helped him in this ‘mission.’



While the ‘credit’ for transforming this area into a different sort of bastion of the Hindutva politics may be given to the Yogi, it needs to be noted at the same time that the process of gradual Hindutvisation of this peetham started only in the post-independence times and gained momentum in the 1980s with the beginning of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. It is a marker of the changed ambience that the city witnessed a communal flare-up in 2003 and today the city and adjoining areas have come under what is known in the lexicon of the statecraft as “communally sensitive zones.”



Gorakhpur is one of the few could-be-counted-on-fingertips areas where the BJP escaped the ignominy of being disrobed in public. The 34 years old mahant, Yogi Adityanath, won the seat for the third time in succession during the 2004 elections to the parliament. It is also noteworthy that his guru and the earlier mahant of the same Peetham, Mahant Avaidyanath, had occupied this seat for four consecutive terms before him. May we surmise from it that at least here the BJP organisation is so strong as to which save the BJP from the ignominy of defeat? The reply is: NO. A BJP public meeting at Gorakhpur on the eve of the elections, with such eminent personalities as Kalyan Singh (the prodigal son who had returned) and Rajnath Singh had proved a disastrous flop.



The reason is that Yogi Adityanath had kept himself away from the meeting on the specious excuse of going to Delhi for medical treatment of one of his relatives.



This is not all. During the election campaign the Yogi had also gone so far as to characterise the BJP as a party speaking in two voices and appealed to the people to oppose it. In spite of the fact that this BJP MP has built a parallel network in the area, the party, swearing by its discipline day in and day out, not only did not expel this MP; it did not even issue him a show-cause notice. On the other hand, theYogi kept enjoying the blessings of the seniors in RSS and BJP without any hassle.



COMMUNAL DEPREDATIONS



The daily Hindustan (Hindi) ran the following caption on October 5, 2003:



Hindu Yuwa Vahini workers beat up for not picking up a quarrel with neighbours.



And the story was:



“Nautanwa, Maharajganj: Rambharat, a dalit living at Kadjahiya Tola, Chandanpur has alleged that just because he would not quarrel with his Muslim neighbour workers of the Hindu Yuva Vahini instigated somebody to pick up a quarrel and had manhandled him.”



A key feature of the Yogi’s Hindutva experiment is to always keep Muslims in focus and win over the dalits and backwards to his side. In order to organise the dalits against 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 the Yogi has succeeded in instigating anti-Muslim feelings from Gorakhpur, Deoria or Siddharthanagar 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 Yogi also keeps raising the bogey of ISI training camps on Indo-Nepal border. Everyday there is a plethora of propaganda in papers about an increase in the ISI activities through the madarsas on the Indo-Nepal border or about the “clandestine relations” between the ISI and the Maoists. Needless to say, all this is based on figments of their feverish imagination.



In their enquiry report titled "UP Ab Gujarat ki Raah Par" (UP On Way To Gujarat Now), the Uttar Pradesh chapter of the PUCL as well as another organisation called Insaaf had given a long list of the deeds of the Yogi who is out to become a mini-Modi. On the basis of this report based on on-the-spot investigations into the incidents at Mohan Mundera, Nathua and Turkmanpur, a representation was also made to the NHRC on July 5, 2002. This, inter alia, clarified how the 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 attack and the result is that it engulfs the Muslim population in terror and insecurity.



The unfortunate fatal attacks on Muslims at Mohan Mundera in district Kushinagar on June 19, 2002, at Nathua (police station Pipraich, district Gorakhpur) on June 23 and at Pande Hata (Gorakhpur) on June 25, 2002 are links in the same chain. It may be mentioned that under the provocation of alleged rape of a backward class girl by an anti-social element who happened to be a Muslim, a mob of thousands of people attacked a Muslim locality at Mohan Mundera, setting the Muslim houses on fire, with Hindutva terrorists having a hand in it. There were also reports that after heaping destruction on the Muslims at Mohan Mundera, the mob descended on Nathua where there were some incidents of stabbing following the harassment of a dalit girl, and set fire to three Muslim houses here. This was preceded by a public meeting, and the locality was challenged and the attack mounted when sufficient strength was gathered. In this case a complaint was filed against some Hindu Mahasabha members and the rowdy Deepak Agarwal, a right hand man of the Yogi.



YOGI’S ROLE IN FLARE-UP



October 2005 witnessed a communal flare-up in Mau town on the eve of Durgapuja celebrations. It saw the 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 in 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) the following:



“Whatever is happening in Purvanchal is occasionally discussed but there is no serious initiative to analyse the same. For the last one decade the aggressive activities of the heir of Gorakshanath Peeth and BJP MP, Yogi Adityanath, to organise the 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 the British, his laboratory…...



“The maximum influence of the Yogi is in the 4 districts of Gorakhpur division (Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj) and 3 of Basti division (Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Siddharthanagar). Now he is spreading his wings in Azamgarh division. Mau is a part of this division.



“The Yogi functions through different organisations which he calls cultural organisations. Included among these organisations are Hindu Yuva Vahini, Hindu Jagaran Manch, Sri Ram Shakti Prakoshtha, Gorakhnath, Purvanchal Vikas Manch, Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha and Hindu Mahasabha. The main functionary of all these organisations is only Yogi Adityanath…. the most vital organisation for the Yogi is Hindu Yuva Vahini. This organisation comprises mostly unemployed youth, small-time criminals and the youth struggling for an 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 the Yogi and later the Yogi himself reaches there. Most of their acts are destructive, like arson, destruction of property and beating. A lively example is the Mohan Mundera episode in Kushinagar. Here a Muslim boy raped a Hindu girl who died during treatment. When the Yogi came to know about this after 3 days, he reached there with his Vahini workers. The property of all the 72 Muslims families was looted, their houses put to fire, and a masjid damaged. The police remained a neutral witness. There are several such examples."



THE MAU EPISODE



The report also provided details about the manner the Yogi tried to aggravate an already inflammable situation. It tells us:



“When the Yogi’s effort to go to Mau with his workers, after the riots started, did not succeed, he held a meeting at Dohri Ghat itself where he was stopped. This polarised the Hindus and it affected the elections of district panchayat membership also. Not only this, it also emboldened the Yogi’s supporter in Mau and a wrong message of the mass-scale massacre of Hindus was sent to places outside the district. When Yogi Adityanath came to Lucknow in connection with a programme recently, he not only repeated the falsehood that Hindus were being massacred in Mau but also gave a warning of revenge.”

Delineating the inferences from the riot, it said:



--- The riot of Mau was the biggest and the most fearsome of all the riots, which took place here. For the first time the rioters organised themselves on such a large scale and executed violence in a systematic manner. The loss was also maximum so far.



--- According to the public at Mau, it was also for the first time that schools and hospitals belonging to the minority community were vandalised and large-scale attacks on mosques were made during the riot. This is a great cause of worry.



--- What was limited to discourses only is now a naked truth before us. Eastern UP is sitting on the mouth of a communal volcano and anything may happen any time here. The riot in Mau and the violence in the neighbouring areas clearly tell so. Just after the riot in Mau there were quick attempts to incite communal violence in Ballia, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Deoria, Meerut and Agra.



NEED FOR VIGILANCE



It is surprising that the 'Yogi phenomenon' which represents a significant addition to the Hindutva arsenal and which has furthered its hate agenda in a ‘creative’ manner has not received the proper attention it deserves. Apart from stray newspaper reports or articles in the mainstream magazines focussing on particular events, one has yet to come across a serious appraisal of the changes wrought in by the growing assertion of the Hindutva forces in the area. If the RSS-BJP can be construed as the first way in which Hindutva has unfolded itself, if the Shiv Sena's experiments in Maharashtra where it won a section of the OBCs to its side can be considered to be the second way of Hindutva, the Gorakhpur experiment can definitely be considered as the third way for Hindutva politics. It combines in itself many significant features of the Hindutva experiment and has larger ramifications for the country as a whole. One can clearly see that not only has it been successful in winning over a section of dalits and backwards to its side by demonising the Muslims, it also has cleverly helped the gradual Hindutvisation of a mainly 'subaltern' peetham.

Of course it is nobody's contention that it rests only on fear, a la the marauders of the Hindutva brigade that is active elsewhere.



The most puzzling as well as the most dangerous aspect of this phenomenon is that it has been able to achieve (to quote Gramsci) a “hegemony” of sorts among a large section of the Hindus.



It is time one wakes up to this strange situation where we have ‘little’ fascists who are popular also. It is time we see for oneself how a yogi can double up as a fanatic and vice versa.

[G.Subramaniam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0dPWx-VvE



Saffron war documentary on Mahant Adityanath by psec

[G.Subramaniam]

www.sacw.net > Communalism Repository - March 13, 2007



Yogi Adityanath's crocodile tears

Can The Drama Whitewash His Black Deeds ?



by Subhash Gatade



(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.



0 0



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-InsaafËœin 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 ŒVirat 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 ŒHindu 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.



0 0



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.

Return to the South Asia Citizens Web | Return to Communalism Repository

[G.Subramaniam]

www.sacw.net > Communalism Repository - March 13, 2007



Yogi Adityanath's crocodile tears

Can The Drama Whitewash His Black Deeds ?



by Subhash Gatade



(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.



0 0



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-InsaafËœin 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 ŒVirat 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 ŒHindu 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.



0 0



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.

Return to the South Asia Citizens Web | Return to Communalism Repository

[G.Subramaniam]

If the dirty psecs are getting takleef over Adityanath, he is doing many things right



In the Mughalsthan corridor

There is a 300 km gap from Delhi to Lahore thanks to 1947 reprisals



Mahant Adityanath is creating another 100km gap

[G.Subramaniam]

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The Yogi And The Fanatic: Would Gorakhpur be the next Gujarat?



By Subhash Gatade



The Milli Gazette



21 January 2007



Gorakhpur, a district in UP bordering Nepal, which had reached national headlines during the anti-colonial struggle for its various militant interventions is today making news altogether for different reasons. Gone are the days when the imaginary of the nascent Indian nation had caught the imagination of the masses; gone are the days when the region was reverberating with anti-feudal and anti-British slogans. Today, all that is passe. Today the slogans have achieved a majoritarian slant which talk of building a Hindu Rashtra, or talk of making the whole area a citadel of a particular brand of Hindutva where the writ of only the local MP, who also happens to be the Mahant of a famous mutt belonging to the Nath tradition, runs.



The unfolding scenario in this city was once again evident to the outside world when this “firebrand” local MP, Yogi Adityanath, organised a three-day international conclave named “Virat Hindu Mahasammelan” (22-24th December 2006), 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. Ranging from Shankaracharya of Goverdhan Peeth, Puri Swami, Nishchalanand Saraswati, to the International President of VHP, Ashok Singhal, or an ex-General of the Nepalese army, Keshar Singh, to the ex-Union minister, Chinmayanand, it had a brought together a motley combination of religious sadhus, politicos or activists of the Hindutva brigade together to discuss the “challenges present before Hinduism.”



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, and 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.



Another highlight of the conference was that the Mahasammelan was organised parallel to the three-day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was billed as the “party's grandest show of unity and strength in recent times”. And, while the BJP seemed to waver initially on the agenda of construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya in its executive meeting, the Mahasammelan, which was in a sense a show of defiance by its own party MP, seemed to focus itself on these very agendas over which the BJP seemed to be going soft because of political exigencies. It is a different matter that, at the end of its meeting, the Party itself discovered the “merits” in raising this issue and go whole-hog riding on a rabid Hindutva agenda.



A question naturally arises whether the “party with a difference” which wears discipline on its sleeves, has decided to tail its own “defiant” MP, or it is part of a wider gameplan of the Hindutva brigade which has seen for itself the “success” of this model in this part of UP — a model which has the potential of making it another “Hindutva laboratory”. It is for everyone to see that in a time of declining fortunes of the Hindutva, the experiment unfolded in this part of Eastern UP has brightened its prospects in a miraculous manner.



It was a marker of things to come: that when Gujarat was burning in the aftermath of Godhra 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, considered to be the right-hand man of Yogi, had declared in his speech, "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."



II



The weekly, Outlook (Hindi) in its issue of the 24th February 2003 (Yogi : Danger to BJP-Yogesh Mishra) unambiguously stated ".. [t]he similarity of Gorakhpur and Gujarat does not stop at the identity of their initials. On a closer look, yet more similarities have begun to appear... If there is Modi there , here is an upcoming hero 'Yogi'."



In fact, the said writeup had focussed on a similar international gathering of the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh which was held at Gorakhpur itself (February 2003). It would be opportune to add that this is the same Mahasangh which had organised the latest Mahasammelan as well. A point worth noting about the Feb 2003 Mahasammelan was that all the top RSS leaders had hastened to reach there. Despite his ill-health, the ex-supremo of RSS, Rajjubhaiyya, as well as International working president of VHP, Ashok Singhal, had made it a point to participate in the programme. Ashok Singhal of the VHP was so overwhelmed by the success of the meeting that he declared Yogi as the new symbol of the Hindu youth.



The power, which Yogi wields over the top brass of the BJP, was evident once again a few months later when the then Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani, accepted Yogi's invitation to Gorakhpur in a move that upset the state BJP leaders. These leader were miffed when Adityanath opposed a BJP candidate in the 2002 assembly elections. In this swift move, the Mahant, thus, forced other BJP leaders to attend his durbar for their obeisance.

Afterall what is so significant about Yogi which has helped make him connoiseur of all eyes in the Hindutva brigade:



Adityanath, who became the youngest legislator in the 12 th Lok Sabha at the age of 26 (1998), and got re-elected twice after that, has helped change the situation in and around Gorakhpur in a qualitative manner. It is the unique nature of his intervention which has, on the one hand, tried to carve out alliances cutting across castes lines through raising their economic demands and, on the other, emerging as a “Hindutva Robinhood” who only could redeem the Hindus of their sufferings, has made it possible for him to widen base. In this process, he has been greatly helped by his long association with the Gorakhnath Peetham. His anointment to the Mahant's post to this Nath Peeth, which has been very popular in this region for centuries and enjoys respect among mainly the subaltern classes has definitely helped him in this “mission”.



While the credit for transforming this area into a different sort of bastion of Hindutva politics may be given to Yogi, it need be noted at the same time that the process of the gradual Hindutvaisation of this peetham started in post-independence times only, which gained momentum in the 1980s with the beginning of the Ramjanambhoomi movement. It is a marker of the changed ambience that the City witnessed a communal flare up in 2003. Today, the city and the adjoining areas have come under what is known in the lexicon of the statecraft as “communal sensitive zones”.



Gorakhpur is one of the few areas that could be counted on the fingertips where BJP escaped the ignominy of being disrobed in public.The 34-year old Mahant Yogi Adityanath won the seat for the third time in succession during the 2004 elections to the Parliament. It is also noteworthy that for four consecutive terms before that, his guru and the earlier Mahant to the Gorakshnath Peetham Mahant Avaidyanath, had occupied this seat. Could we surmise from it that, at least here, the BJP organisation is strong and it saved the BJP from the ignominy of defeat? The reply is "NO". A BJP public meeting at Gorakhpur on the eve of the elections with such eminent personalities as Kalyan Singh (the prodigal son who had returned) and senior leader, Rajnath Singh, had proved a disastrous flop. The reason is that Yogi Adityanath had kept himself away from the meeting on the excuse of going to Delhi for medical treatment for one of his relatives.This is not all.



During the election campaign, Yogi had gone so far as to characterise BJP as a party speaking in two voices and appealed people to the oppose it. In spite of the fact that this official M.P. of the BJP has built a parallel network in the area, the party, swearing by its “discipline” not only did not expel this MP, but did not even issue a show-cause notice to him. On the other hand, Yogi kept enjoying the blessings of the seniors in RSS and BJP without any hassle.



III



Hindu Yuwa Vahini workers beat up for not picking up a quarrel with neighbourers. Nautanwa, Maharajganj: Ram Bharat, a Dalit living at Kadjahiya Tola, Chandanpur, has alleged that just because he would not quarrel with his Muslim neighbour, workers of the Hindu Yuwa Wahini instigated somebody to pick up a quarrel and had manhandled him. (Hindustan, 5 October 2003)



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 in 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. Everyday there is a plethora of propaganda in papers about increase in the ISI activities through the madarsas on the Indo-Nepal border, or about the clandestine relations between the ISI and Maoists, which is all based on figments of their feverish imagination.



The 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 attack, resulting into engulfng the Muslim population in terror and insecurity. The unfortunate fatal attacks on Muslims at Mohan Mundera district Kushinagar on 19th June 2002, at Nathua (PS-Pipraich ) on 23rd June, and 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 ant-isocial 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 Mohan Mundera, the mob descended on Nathua (PS Piparaich, district 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 was 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.



IV



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): "Whatever is happening in Purvanchal is occasionally discussed, but there is no serious initiative to analyse the same. For the 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, Yogi has made this entire area, especially the area known as Gorakhpur during the times of Britishers, his laboratory...”



The maximum influence of the Yogi is in the 7 districts of Gorakhpur Division (Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Mahrajganj) and Basti Division (Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Siddharthanagar). Now he is spreading his wings in Azamgarh Division. Mau is a part of this division.



Yogi functions through different organizations which he calls cultural organizations. Included among these organizations are Hindu Yuva Vahini, Hindu Jagran Manch, Sri Ram Shakti Prakoshtha, Gorakhnath, Purvanchal Vikas Manch, Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha and Hindu Mahasabha. The main functionary of all these organizations is only Yogi Adityanath. The most vital of these organizations for Yogi is Hindu Yuva Vahini. 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 any incident, 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 Mohan Mundera episode in Kushinagar. Here, a Muslim boy raped a Hindu girl and the girl died during treatment. After three 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.



The report also provided details about the manner in which Yogi tried to aggravate an already inflammable situation. It tells us:

When Yogi’s effort to go to Mau with his workers, after the riots started, did not succeed, then he held a meeting at Dohri Ghat itself where he was stopped. This polarized Hindus and it affected the elections of district panchayat membership also. Not only this, it also emboldened the supporter of Yogi in Mau and the wrong message of mass-scale massacre of Hindus was sent to the places outside the district. When Yogi Adityanath came to Lucknow in connection with a programme recently, he not only repeated the falsehood that Hindus were being massacred in Mau, but also gave a warning of revenge.



Delineating the inferences from the riot, it said:

* This riot of Mau is the biggest and the most fearsome of all the riots, which took place here. For the first time, on such large scale, the rioters organized themselves and executed violence in a systematic manner. The loss has also been maximum.

* According to the public of Mau, it was also for the first time that during the riot, schools and hospitals belonging to minority community were vandalized, and large-scale attacks on mosques were made. This is a great cause of worry.

* What was limited to discourses only, is now a naked truth before us. Eastern UP is sitting on the mouth of communal volcano. Anything may happen any time here — The riot in Mau and the violence in the neighbouring areas clearly tell this. Just after the riot in Mau, there were quick attempt to incite communal violence in Ballia, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Devaria, Meerut and Agra.



V





It is really surprising that the “Yogi phenomenon” which represents a significant addition to the Hindutva arsenal, and which has helped further its hate agenda in a “creative” manner, has not received the proper attention it deserves. Apart from stray newspaper reports or articles in the mainstream magazines focussing themselves on particular events, one has yet to come across a serious appraisal of the changes wrought in by the growing assertion of the forces of Hindutva in the area. If RSS-BJP can be construed as the first way in which Hindutva has unfolded itself or, for that matter Shiv Sena's experiments in Maharashtra which have won a section of OBCs to its side, can be considered to be the second way of Hindutva, the Gorakhpur experiment can definitely be considered as the third way for the Hindutva politics.



It combines in itself many a significant feature of this “L'experiment Hindutva” which have larger ramifications for the country as a whole. One can clearly see that not only it has been successful in winning over a section of Dalits and backwards to its side by demonizing the Muslims, but has also cleverly helped the gradual Hindutvaisation/ Brahminisation of a mainly “subaltern” peetham.



Of course it is nobody's contention that it rests only on fear, a la the marauders of the Hindutva brigade active elsewhere. The most puzzling as well as the most dangerous aspect of this phenomenon is that it has been able to achieve (to quote Gramsci) a “hegemony” of sorts among a large section of the Hindus.



It is time one wakes up to this strange situation where we have “little” fascists who are popular also. It is time we are able to shed our old straightjacketed understanding of fascism, and see for oneself how a Yogi can double up as a fanatic and vice versa.



It is important to look at this fact with utmost urgency because the recent National Convention of BJP has demonstrated the growing fascination for Narendra Modi within the Sangh Parivar itself. And, it is logical that such elements would rather prefer similar faces elsewhere as well. And, despite his public infractions, Yogi is the best bet for them in the Eastern Part of UP.



Source: The Milli Gazette, 16-31 January 2007, p. 11



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[G.Subramaniam]

promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:16 pm



wt is qualities in Mayawati n Mulayam singh for which their workers are ready to die for him/her. They are fierce,attacking and always ready to fight. They always carry the war to the enemy camp. They can motivate their workers wid their oaratory skill.they are rable -rousers. In ram janam bhoomi days kalyan singh had d same qualities. Bt he is spent force nw moreovr he has left bjp. Its blessing in disguise. Bjp shud promote sumone young,fiery,attacking,oarator,dynamic leader. And in whole uttar pradesh bjp only one person fit in these shoes. Yes, YOGI ADITYANATH, his enemies are scared when he is out in field. His own outfit hindu yuva vahini is outstanding. His worker is ready to die for him bcoz he cares his worker.Yogi is energetic,people love to hear him. He is the önly persom whom even mafia dons like Mukhtar ansari are feared.he can end the gunda raj in up.if u support this idea then comment. And i am nt frm up,i am frm Punjab

Advocate shekhar



Posts: 100

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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by asitava on Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:17 am



I also like Yogi Adtyanath. He is honest enough to say a spade a spade. We need energetic leader like him who can bring life to the party. Let Arun Jaitly be the election-in-charge of UP and Yogi ji as his right hand man. Kalraj & co should take rest. Let there be other good suggestions also, but we need UP back.

asitava



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by riteshst on Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:09 am



I am agree 100%.

riteshst



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:00 pm



With all due respect,its quite amazing that despite running so many threads on ' fragile condition of bjp in up ' neither of our bloggers took the issue of Yogi Adityanath. While all of us are talking about young,energentic bla bla leadership should b found in UP,no body has any idea about yogi. He has all d qualities.young,fiery,energetic,worker following,oaratory skills.but no takers for him bcoz he is nt associted wid any groups in bjp. Similar was d case in karnataka few years ago where mass leaders lyk yeddiyurapa were thrown into back seat by sum baseless psychophants by lobbying.bt by d grace of God better sense prevailed to d party bosses n nw we r taking proud for lotus to broon in south of vindhyas.so better b late than never. Promote YOGI in UP n we'll see the lotus broom again in d hindi hinterland.

Advocate shekhar



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:08 pm



bjp has tried all and sundry in up.kalraj mishra,lal ji tondon ,vinay katiyar are all spent forces.bt i dnt mean to say that they should thrown into back seats. They have given important period of their lives to the party. But they should give way to new leadership.they should nt take party 4 ransom.they can have power only if the party has power.so we should all plead the case of Yogi.

Advocate shekhar



Posts: 100

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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:23 pm



with all other qualities like he is young,fiery,good oarator,worker following,he is hindutva mascot in UP.in UP politics where a party need a caste vote bank to survive we have nothing. Wid dalits n brahmins wid BSP,yadavs,thakurs,obc,muslim wid SP.we are having nothing. So only uniting point cud be Hindutva vs SP,BSP n mafia gundaraj nexus of mukhtar ansaris,atiq ahmeds,afzal ansari etc.Moreover, on the caste lines he is only thakur religious leadr having tremendous respect among the thakurs,who have mighty influence in UP politics.remember Raja Bhaiya episode ? All thakur Mlas cutting across party line rallied around him against the mayawati. And was the reason of fall of then mayawati govt.He can bring back the community having 7% vote share,back in our fold.So, we are for Yogi. Again i wud like to mention that i m nt from up i blong to punjab .

Advocate shekhar



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by d_d85 on Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:18 pm



Even though I am not from UP, I had read something which I found very amazing...

In one of the recent editions in India Today, they carried an article in which they analyzed the current LS members on the basis of attendance, participation in debates, raising questions etc...

In the list of young MPs who scored the most on attendance, raising questions, participation in debates, there were 4 MPs, all from NDA, and none from Congress (yes, not even Rahul Baba!). I vividly remember reading Yogi Adityanath's name there, along with a BJP MP from Arunachal in that list. In fact, Rahul Gandhi scored the least when it came to participation in the Lok Sabha (seems like he prefers the media!).

It was then I wondered why someone so dedicated and talented was not being utilized properly by BJP in UP, where anyways, it has everything to gain...

I join Advocate Shekhar in urging BJP to promote fiery leaders like Yogi Adityanath.

d_d85



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by asitava on Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:09 pm



Let us have more comments on Yogi ji mainly from UP, if found he is fit to revive the party in UP, then let us put pressure on the leadership, so that the party take a positive decision on UP. We want atleast 50 to 60 seats in UP. Party should not bulge under pressure from the individuals/groups who are working for their own interests. If Rajnath ji, Jaitly ji and Yogi ji work together, nobody can prevent us from winning UP, I firmly beleive.

asitava



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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:17 pm



If this web portal is seriously dedicated for bjp welfare n the moderators do care to carry forward the suggestion to party bosses then plz plz do refer our suggestion to high command. Mr. Moderator are u hearing.plz rply. Once again i would say Yogi is the last hope to revive bjp in UP.

Advocate shekhar



Posts: 100

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Re: promote '' YOGI ADITYANATH '' IN Uttar Pradesh

by Advocate shekhar on Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:30 pm



there is a slogan popular in Gorakhpur,from where Yogi contest,'' gorakhpur mein rehna hai, yogi yogi kehna hai ''

but i would change it a bit as

'' bjp ko bachana hai,yogi ko hi lana hai ''.

[G.Subramaniam]

BJP must hand over UP to Adityanath



He is robust and a Rajput, not a brahmin-bania



He has co-opted dalits



He calls a spade a spade



He has the guts to go against the islamist mafia

[G.Subramaniam]

North of the Ghaghara river, The Mahant rules in Gorakhpur, Basti, Deoria, Maharajganj, Kusinagar, and Siddarth Nagar



South of the Ghagara river, the islamist mafia rules in Mau, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Balia, Jaunpur and Ghazipur

[G.Subramaniam]

Gorakhpur, Total 3.7 mil, muslim 0.3 mil, 9%

Basti. Total, 2.1 mil. muslim 0.3 mil. 14%

Deoria, Total 2.7 mil. muslim 0.3 mil. 11%

Maharajganj, Total 2.2 mil, muslim 0.4 mil, 16%

Kushinagar, Total 2.9 mil, muslim 0.5 mil, 17%

Siddharthnagar, Total 2 mil. muslim 0.6 mil. 30%



Total in Yogiland

Total 15.6 mil, 2.4 mil, 15%



Here the Hindus are united and militarised, This is a decisive break in the Mughalsthan chain

[G.Subramaniam]

Now I am going to look at the Azamgarh mini-pakistan, ruled by Muktar Ansari



Mau

Total 1.9 mil, muslim 0.4 mil. 20%



Azamgarh

Total 3.9 mil, muslim 0.6 mil, 15%



Varanasi

Total 3.1 mil. muslim 0.5 mil, 16%



Balia

Total 2.8 mil, muslim 0.2 mil, 7%



Jaunpur,



Total 3.9 mil. muslim 0.4 mil. 10%



Ghazipur



Total 3 mil. muslim 0.3 mil, 10%



Overall

Total 18.6 mil, muslim 2.4 mil, 12.9%



By granting Purvanchal, maybe someone like Yogi can become CM

and use the police to encounter the muslim mafia



Amazing that in this region with just 13% muslim

the muslim mafia has taken over



Anyways the Yogi is trying to expand into Mau and Azamgarh

and hopefully he will destroy the muslim mafia

[G.Subramaniam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFxXITDmO...playnext=1



This is a non-sangh cow protection group that stops cattle trucks in Hindu areas and thrashed muslims transporters



Very inspiring



It is based in Punjab, with less than 1% muslim and has a free hand



Thats the correct ratio to initiate action, not inside a muslim ghetto

[G.Subramaniam]

Purvanchal



Riots, Rai killing: Advantage BJP?



LUCKNOW: More the heat created by riots and assassinations in eastern Uttar Pradesh, more likely the fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will soar.



Though the Purvanchal region of the state has always been a hot-bed of violence, the colours and connotations this time around are different.



The turf-war here, which was confined to the contracts and tenders related to railways, coal and the like, has acquired communal colours. The politicisation of this struggle is set to pit Samajwadi Party (SP) against the BJP.



Eastern UP is constituted mainly by Varanasi, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Basti, Devipatan, Faizabad, Allahabad, and Vindhyachal mandals (divisions). The districts worst affected by the recent spate of arson are Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Ballia, Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Allahabad. The fallout of these incidents has also been on the neighbouring districts.



A look at the main protagonists reportedly involved in the murders and riots does raise suspicions that there may be a design and motive behind the killings and the rioting that has followed.



The list consists of dons-turned-politicians like Mukhtar Ansari, MLA from Mau; Atiq Ahmed from Allahabad; Krishnanand Rai, slain MLA from Mahmoodabad; Brajesh Singh from Chandauli; Ajai Rai, active in Varanasi; Ramakant and Umakant Yadav from Azamgarh among others.



Sources confirm that it is difficult to touch Ansari and Ahmed as they enjoy the patronage of the party in power. These two are also reportedly close to Siwan's Shahabuddin.



The number of politicians with dubious backgrounds who have been gunned down shows the BJP as the worst-hit. BJP MLC Ajit Singh was shot by his own gunner. Though this was painted as a mishap, the involvement of a mafia-politician has not been ruled out. Raju Pal, who defeated Atiq Ahmed's brother, was shot dead, and the killing was given a caste angle.



Ghanashyam Shukla, BJP MLA from Gonda, died an unnatural death. And the latest to face the enemy's bullet is mafia-turned politician Krishnanand Rai, who was a sworn enemy of Mukhtar Ansari and his brother, Afzal Ansari, SP MP from Ghazipur.



Going by the number of MLAs and MPs, SP is the most powerful party in eastern UP, followed by the BSP. But the polarisation of votes between the two communities may propel the BJP as a hot contender for the top post.



However, BJP politicians vehemently refute that they are playing communal politics. The major hindrance for the BJP is that it does not have any prominent leader left in the Purvanchal belt.



Keshari Nath Thripati, former assembly speaker and state party president argues, "there is no communal situation. Krishananand's murder was a political murder. Mulayam Singh is playing appeasement politics towards the minorities. The murder was done with the government's connivance." He alleges that SP wants to eliminate the leaders of the majority community.



The assassinations and the communal situation that has emerged has undoubtedly given the BJP a fresh lease of life in the state, post-Hindutva.



The other two political players, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress, are likely to get marginalised if the political landscape continues to get polarised further. Barkhu Ram Verma, BSP state president, refuses to get drawn into the debate. He argues, "let us leave it to the public. We will know the real picture after the elections. All we want are elections as soon as possible."

[G.Subramaniam]

It's parivar time for BJP in Azamgarh

Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, January 13, 2012



Email to Author



First Published: 00:38 IST(13/1/2012)

Last Updated: 01:18 IST(13/1/2012)

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MP Ramakant Yadav, whose wife, son and nephew are contesting polls this time, has made the BJP a force to reckon with in Azamgarh.



The party was weak in the district until the one-time close associate of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the BJP and won the Lok





Sabha seat in the 2009 elections.

Since then he has kept the BJP's flag flying in an area that's known for hot political spats over terrorism, use of bahubalis (muscle men) and cut-throat tactics among rivals.



This time, for the UP assembly polls, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has turned to Ramakant Yadav, who is seen as a key Yadav chieftain, to deliver the maximum number of seats in eastern UP, which is also known as Poorvanchal.



Hitherto, the BJP has never seen the Yadavs as their main supporters like the Brahmins or Rajputs. Known as a tough leader, Ramakant Yadav, who was in the BSP also, is helping to change that impression, say BJP leaders.



Gadkari has let Ramakant Yadav have his way in getting the ticket for his family members first - his wife Ranjana Yadav, a college principal, is contesting from Nizamabad, son Arun Yadav from Jalalpur, and his nephew Birendra Yadav from Phulpur.



Yogendra Yadav, who has been given the ticket for Gopalpur, is another relative of Ramakant Yadav. BJP officials said the candidate from Didarganj - Shyam Sunder Chauhan, a Bhojpuri singer - is a close aide of Ramakant Yadav.



The BJP MP could have managed more but for opposition from senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra, who too hails from the same area and resents his influence.



A confident Yadav, however, told HT, "We are going to get good results. Our campaign is beginning to break new ground as the Congress's promise of 9% quota for Muslims is snowballing and has angered the OBCs in a serious way. Apart from other issues like lack of governance and price rise, reservation on religious lines is going to boomerang on the Congress."



Ramakant Yadav's aides Rakesh Rai and Ram Surat Yadav said their leader had earned the nickname "second yogi", the first being fiery BJP Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath.



At stake are 10 seats in Azamgarh, four in Mau, and seven each in Ghazipur,



Ballia and Jaunpur. As for the demographic profile, the Yadavs and Rajputs are said to matter in rural areas while the Muslims hold the key in urban centres.



The Azamgarh region is also a bone of contention for Mayawati's close aides - UP assembly speaker Sukhdev Rajbar and Dr Baliram - and SP leader Balram Yadav.



--



Ramakant Yadav, a BJP man is a gangster and should be helped to displace Muktar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed

[G.Subramaniam]

When I Ask Them To Rise And Protect Our Hindu Culture, They Obey Me’



Yogi Adityanath, 37

BJP MP FROM GORAKHPUR, UP



NUMBER OF CASES: 2

RIOTING, DISTURBING HARMONY





Photo: AP

EYES CLOSED in exhaustion, hundreds throng the Gorakhnath temple, their mouths mumbling prayers and fists scrunching bits of paper. The queue is headed not towards the revered shrine but to the air-conditioned office where a saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath sits. He collects the crumpled and sweaty chits his devotees bring and promises deliverance. The assurance is grounded not so much in his holiness but in the Hindu predominance he vows to bring about.



Yogi Adityanath, head priest-apparent at the Gorakhnath mutt in east Uttar Pradesh, is a BJP MP from Gorakhpur and a Hindu leader of clout. “When I speak, thousands listen,” he says. “When I ask them to rise and protect our Hindu culture, they obey. If I ask for blood, they will give me blood.” To channel these energies, he founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a radical and violent group consisting mainly of unemployed youth and small-time criminals who pledge to serve “Yogiji” and destroy his enemies: the non-Hindus. “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu rashtra,” says Adityanath. He does accept Muslim votes, but only after they have been “cleansed with Gangajal”.



For more than a decade, Adityanath and the Vahini have been accused of turning Gorakhpur and its neighbouring districts into a simmering communal cauldron. Calling himself the next Narendra Modi, Adityanath has repeatedly threatened to turn Gorakhpur into Godhra and UP into Gujarat. Driving through Muslim-majority pockets like Azamgarh with sword-brandishing youth screaming his name, Adityanath unleashes the infamous firepower that has provoked massive Hindu-Muslim violence. While he swears he will “eliminate the Muslim population in UP”, he claims he has another plan for Christians. In October 2005, he led a ‘purification drive’ in the district of Etah, converting 1,800 Christians to Hinduism. Earlier that year, he had converted 5,000 Dalit Christians in the same district.



The Yogi takes pride not only in his oratorical skills but also in what he calls his “clear code of right and wrong”. “Being Muslim — right. Being Muslim in India — wrong,” he says. “Terrorism — wrong. Hindus hitting back at Muslims for terrorism — right.”



He believes there is no such thing as a Hindu terrorist and claims that any violence by a Hindu is only done in selfdefence. In November 2008, when the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad announced it will interrogate a “highprofile person” in UP in connection with last September’s bomb blasts in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town, Adityanath brazenly appeared on TV news channels daring the Congress-led Centre to question him.



“A few arrests will not stop me,” he says. And they haven’t. Adityanath is said to have provoked over 20 incidents of communal violence. But there are only two criminal cases against him, one of which pertains to the killing of a gunman of a rival political leader from the Samajwadi Party at Maharajganj near Gorakhpur, in 1999. The second criminal case was registered when Adityanath and his Vahini laid siege to the town in January 2007, burning mosques, houses, buses and trains, claiming that the Gorakhnath temple had been attacked. Adityanath and 130 others were arrested on the spot. The District Magistrate, Hari Om, who ordered the arrests, was transferred out the next day. Today, the case lies cold and untouched. Says Adityanath, “God looks after me.” Hari Om counters, “The Yogi’s protectors are less powerful than God but more corrupt.”

[G.Subramaniam]

PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA LUCKNOW, MARCH 28, 2009 | UPDATED 09:33 IST

Azamgarh seeks to bar Yogi Adityanath









A section of Azamgarh's youth has asked the Election Commission (EC) to forbid BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath, from entering the district, alleging he plans to communalise the atmosphere before the Lok Sabha elections.



In its complaint to the EC, the Awami Council for Democracy and Peace, an organisation of young men from Azamgarh, alleged that Yogi, the 37-year-old successor of Gorakhpur's Gorakshnath temple, tries to polarise voters on religious lines during every election.



They also claimed that L.K. Advani's proposed March 28 rally was chalked out by Yogi to fulfil the same agenda and thanked the district administration for disallowing the BJP prime ministerial candidate.



"He (Yogi) is the chief of Hindu Yuva Vahini, an organisation which incites communal hatred on the pretext of pushing its Hindutva agenda. He creates a riotlike situation to gain political mileage during every election. He has also declared that those who didn't subscribe to his Hindutva agenda should leave Azamgarh.



He should be barred from entering the district," the complaint stated.



It claimed Yogi had also spewed venom on April 10 last year during a rally in Azamgarh while campaigning for Ramakant Yadav during the by- polls.



"He spoke against the minority community and called upon the majority community (Hindus) to get ready for a war against them. He also said the district would soon be renamed as Aryangarh," the complaint read.



The complainants, Rajiv Yadav and Shahnawaz Alam, claimed that they had submitted a CD of Yogi's speeches as evidence.



But state BJP president Ramapati Ram Tripathi said, "Such complaints are normal for a popular leader. Yogi is our star campaigner who will address rallies all over eastern UP." He added, "This must be our rivals' plan to malign him." Although the BJP had dumped Yogi during the 2007 assembly elections, when it put the Hindutva campaign on the backburner, he has again become a darling of the saffron party, which has returned to the same agenda.



A practising hathyogi (a stream of yoga), Yogi's emergence in eastern UP coincides with the rise of communal politics in the region.



The Hindu Yuva Vahini is suspected of being involved in more than 24 instances of communal strife since 1998. Yogi's role was also established in the Mau riots of October 2005, in which six people were killed.



On September 7 last year, a youth, Matiullah, was killed during a communal clash after Yogi's procession from the Takia area in Azamgarh.



BJP MLA from Gorakhpur Radhamohan Das is often heard saying: "Eastern UP is a Hindu Rashtra and Yogi is its president and prime minister." But Yogi said, "It is wrong to say that I am into hate politics. But I believe that Hindus shouldn't fear fanatics and give them a befitting reply. My job is to boost the morale of Hindus and make sure that they live a fear- free life.



Those who don't like it are free to register a complaint against me. I don't care." Chief electoral officer Anuj Kumar Bishnoi confirmed that the EC had received the complaint and that it was processing the details. "Action would be initiated against him if charges are found correct," he said.







Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Azamg...34287.html