Yogi’s Hindu Yuva Vahini is ready to hit national highway

NEW DELHI: “Rastrawaadi hain aur sabse sahasi (he is a nationalist and the most fearless)” is how Raghvendra Pratap Singh describes Yogi Adityanath, the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Singh is one of the original members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a right-wing organisation founded by Yogi Adityanath. He is also a newly elected MLA in UP. He defeated Saiyada Khatoon of the BSP in Dumariyaganj by 171 votes.

“I won with the lowest margin, but still I celebrated. All the Muslims had come together to defeat me in this area." Singh's claim to fame is the fight against counterfeit notes that he says are being brought from the border by Muslim traders.

As a Vahini worker, Singh says, his popularity grew as he was instrumental in stopping conversions in Balrampur and checking on illegal activities on the Indo-Nepal border and surrounding areas.

Incidentally, it was at an election rally in the neighbouring Gonda that Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the issue of criminal activities along the Indo-Nepal border.

“A community wanted to make this stretch into Moghulistan. Mosques and Madrasas were coming up daily. Our organisation fought them for 12 years. Keeping a close watch on how some people have prospered while others haven't is important and that is what we did,” Singh said.

The Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded in 2001, is a cultural organisation that plays the role of a "defence warrior” on the Indo-Nepal border preventing trafficking of weapons, cattle and even women, said Singh.

The future of this group is as bright as the future of UP with Yogi Adityanath at its helm, he added, listing out the priorities: law and order, health and education. "He (Adityanath) is young and incorruptible. Anyone else in the CM’s place would be pressurised by the MLAs, even the party's own, to get deals done, but nobody will mess with Maharaj,” he said.

Adityanath is unapologetic about his push for Hindutva, say his supporters. “In 2005-2006, under Mulayam Singh, there was a riot in Aligarh and some of us had got arrested. Maharaj (as Yogi Adityanath is called by his supporters) had come all the way from Gorakhpur to Aligarh in curfew to rescue us. He held a press conference, too. He has been full of courage right from the beginning,” said Vinod Rawat, a members of the organisation.

“Baba hates lies. He needs no money. The mutt is rich enough to feed many. There is no question of any corruption. He also never misses attending a wedding if he is invited for it, especially if it is from a girl's side.”

Just before the UP elections, some members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini decided to field their own candidates after they felt Yogi Adityanath had been humiliated by the BJP that hadn't declared him the CM face.

One of its founding-members, Sunil Singh who was expelled then, organised a press conference on Saturday as soon as Yogi Adityanath was named the CM, saying the organisation would “now work like a younger brother to the BJP”. “All we wanted is due respect for Baba as he is the most efficient and popular leader today,” he said.