Yogi Adityanath has started delivering as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP). His new orders to ban tobacco and pan masala in government buildings, making case for scraping VIP culture in UP and such other moves are welcoming. He remarked that ‘Law and Order’ in an otherwise crime infested State is his first priority. Simultaneously, construction of Ram-Ramayana Museum in Ayodhya can be seen as a move to revive the larger cultural legacy of our glorious past.
However just few days back when Mahant Yogi Adityanath’s name got the confirmation as the Chief Minister designate for UP, the news sparked responses and reactions from all the corners. Some were jubilant over it but for others the news put the whammy on them. Senior journalist Barkha Dutt commented on the development as ‘The fringe is now the Mainstream’.
The popularity of Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh in general and Poorvanchal in particular is conspicuous. Ever since his first election as a Member of Parliament in 1998 from Gorakhpur and in continuation thereafter, he has been diligent in labouring on the ground for ‘his kind of politics’. He is widely acceptable, welcoming, and admired by his
followers who are millions.
A New Political Culture for ‘A New India’
The dynastic politics of the Indian National Congress over the decades has set up precedence where party leadership whip used to overrule the mandate of the people while electing the CMs across the states. It is not that remote in the past to be forgotten when NCERT Political Science textbooks stirred controversy over the use of
newspaper cartoons in them, showing Indira Gandhi arranging her dolls. Alas in the case the dolls were CMs and the Governors of the states during the Congress System!
BJP has pushed up a new kind of
democratic politics in the party structure where the regional considerations and mandate of the people are to be equally respected. Despite having a mighty leader in Narendra Modi, BJP has never disallowed the rise of new popular leaders whom people may prefer for others. For many, Adityanath’s candidacy may not be exhibiting a political correctness, but it certainly venerates the mandate and the popular choice of the people of Uttar Pradesh.
The distinguishing feature of democracy is the diversity of the operations of fringe and mainstream in accordance
with the will of the people. What, for refined Lutyens’ Delhi intelligentsia can be ‘fringe’, may equally be ‘mainstream’ for the people of a certain region. BJP as the emerging largest party of the largest democracy acknowledges this diversity of interests and has acted to it again.
Rebel against the archaic ‘categories’
One must also exalt this decision as a rebel against the archaic ‘categories’ of secularism and communalism. BJP and its leadership knew well that Adityanath’s
candidacy would be featured as a rise in communal tendency and tensions. However, they went ahead with it. Why? It is because when the old day intellectuals are busy scratching their heads to declare certain outfits and individuals as more communal/ secular than the other, people are celebrating the ‘deliverance’ and
‘performance’. The fissures of secularism which were used for manufacturing the concept of ‘block vote’ has been left exposed now. Different electoral analyses showed that the mandate to BJP in Uttar Pradesh has transcended the divisiveness of caste, religion, gender and other similar mobilising factors. Hence, people and more particularly even minorities have now started exercising their vote for a ‘politics of performance’ rather than for a ‘politics of division’.
(The writer is a student of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
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