How the 'fringe' within BJP went mainstream
NEW DELHI: In a speech in Lok Sabha in August 2014, as SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav looked on with mild interest, Yogi Adityanath took up funds offered by the UP government for the maintenance of "kabristan" boundary walls much before the reference was made famous by PM Narendra Modi in the heat of the UP campaign.
"Some Rs 300 crore has been set aside for this. There are disputes in every village,“ he said. Explaining why this was so, he said the policy had become an excuse for illegal encroachment of land with the full support of the state. "This is the wish of the administration... will there not be communal polarisation?" he asked.
This was the Yogi in his element, turning the charge of communalism on his opponents and unhesitatingly proclaiming the need for Hindus to unite against the threat of discriminatory policies. The interruptions and heckling did not knock him off his stride. "Hindu represents India's nationalism. You will have to pay a price for running down Hinduism," he continued.
For much of his long parliamentary career, Adityanath's speeches in LS did not attract the notice of the commentariat. In fact, he was not really part of the BJP mainstream either, a diminutive saffron dynamo useful in organising the foot soldiers of the Hindu faith under the wider Sangh umbrella. Long known as "chotte mahant" when his mentor Avaidyanath controlled the influential Gorakshpeeth, Adityanath had few friends in Parliament. As he stood awaiting his transport, it was rare for a fellow MP to strike up a conversation. For the obvi ous influence he wielded as the head of his ancient math, Adityanath did not find Delhi a welcoming place. His street fighter image preceded him and he was very much off most invitation lists. The loner that he is, it perhaps did not matter.
The rapid political churn set off by Modi's win in 2014 has turned the fringe into the mainstream, no less in the BJP. Adityanath's fortunes changed with the elevation of Amit Shah as BJP chief even if it did not bring immediate gains. As BJP headed to a big majority in UP , Shah became convinced that Adityanath best represented the nature of a mandate drawn from a backlash against SP's perceived caste and communal bias and a more normal desire for development. It is by far the boldest or riskiest gamble the Modi-Shah duo has taken.
A seemingly eccentric figure, the saffron savant has been a polarising preacher. In his environs in east UP , his advocacy of Hindu interests and the Yuva Vahini he set up made him a popular leader. He now has an opportunity to script a new innings, almost a third life after the one left behind in Garhwal and the one he has led in Gorakhpur.
"Some Rs 300 crore has been set aside for this. There are disputes in every village,“ he said. Explaining why this was so, he said the policy had become an excuse for illegal encroachment of land with the full support of the state. "This is the wish of the administration... will there not be communal polarisation?" he asked.
This was the Yogi in his element, turning the charge of communalism on his opponents and unhesitatingly proclaiming the need for Hindus to unite against the threat of discriminatory policies. The interruptions and heckling did not knock him off his stride. "Hindu represents India's nationalism. You will have to pay a price for running down Hinduism," he continued.
For much of his long parliamentary career, Adityanath's speeches in LS did not attract the notice of the commentariat. In fact, he was not really part of the BJP mainstream either, a diminutive saffron dynamo useful in organising the foot soldiers of the Hindu faith under the wider Sangh umbrella. Long known as "chotte mahant" when his mentor Avaidyanath controlled the influential Gorakshpeeth, Adityanath had few friends in Parliament. As he stood awaiting his transport, it was rare for a fellow MP to strike up a conversation. For the obvi ous influence he wielded as the head of his ancient math, Adityanath did not find Delhi a welcoming place. His street fighter image preceded him and he was very much off most invitation lists. The loner that he is, it perhaps did not matter.
The rapid political churn set off by Modi's win in 2014 has turned the fringe into the mainstream, no less in the BJP. Adityanath's fortunes changed with the elevation of Amit Shah as BJP chief even if it did not bring immediate gains. As BJP headed to a big majority in UP , Shah became convinced that Adityanath best represented the nature of a mandate drawn from a backlash against SP's perceived caste and communal bias and a more normal desire for development. It is by far the boldest or riskiest gamble the Modi-Shah duo has taken.
A seemingly eccentric figure, the saffron savant has been a polarising preacher. In his environs in east UP , his advocacy of Hindu interests and the Yuva Vahini he set up made him a popular leader. He now has an opportunity to script a new innings, almost a third life after the one left behind in Garhwal and the one he has led in Gorakhpur.
