The choice of Gorakhpur Member of Parliament (MP) Adityanath Yogi as the 21st chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is not only being celebrated by the local residents, but the development may well boost another equally famed entity of this eastern UP district -- Gita Press.
Gorakhpur is home to Gita Press, a well-known publisher of Hindu religious, cultural and spiritual texts.
The famed publisher, backed by its legacy of almost 95 years, has cumulatively clocked sales of over 580 million books, including the most revered Hindu religious texts of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitmanas.
In 2015, Gita Press had been beleaguered with workers' strikes over pay hikes, workers' suspension and termination. The trouble had erupted when the management had suspended 12 staffers and terminated the services of some contractual employees in August 2015 after charging them with indiscipline and assaulting an official.
The workers had proceeded on strike demanding revocation of the suspension and termination. Back then, talks between the management and striking workers had failed to resolve the deadlock.
At that time, Adityanath, an influential figure in the region with a mass following, had intervened to resolve the issue.
At present, there are no labour issues weighing down the iconic press. "Its 450 odd employees, including 200 permanent staffers, are working in harmony," Gita Press Trust Board Chief Radhey Shyam Khemka told Business Standard. He is also the editor of Kalyan, a popular spiritual magazine published by Gita Press.
He said that Adityanath's coronation was expected to generate interest among people in India's cultural ethos and, consequently, their quest for seeking information about relevant topics.
"It is lamentable that the current generation lacks insight about our ancient culture and religion, since they have not been provided with such environment or informed as part of their curriculum," he added.
Khemka expressed confidence that Adityanath's background as a seer and his Gorakhpur connection, coupled with his ascetic lifestyle, would help inculcate moral and cultural values among the youth, which would then translate in the demand for such texts.
While the printing jobs of Gita Press are executed in Gorakhpur, the editorial team comprising 15-20 people stays in Varanasi. Gita Press is a unit of Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (presently governed by the West Bengal Societies Act, 1960).
Gita Press, which had started publications in Hindi and Sanskrit, now publishes books in English and Indian vernacular languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Telugu, Oriya, Bangla, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi etc.
In the past, Khemka has been a nominated member of a high-level committee constituted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the propagation and popularisation of Hindi and vernacular languages.