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One year of Yogi Adityanath: How did the 'naughtiest guy in class' behave?

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DailyBiteMar 20, 2018 | 21:23

One year of Yogi Adityanath: How did the 'naughtiest guy in class' behave?

On March 19, when the BJP government was celebrating its first year in power in Uttar Pradesh - Lucknow hosted an event “Ek Saal Nayi Misaal (One year, a new example)” - cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar posed a serious question: "What is the use of celebrating one year of this government?”

As expected, Rajbhar - who is the chief of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, a BJP ally - has created a furore with his dramatic dissent, much to the amusement of BJP opponents.

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When Yogi Adityanath, a Hindutva hardliner and known rabble-rouser, was made the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the decision was met with massive criticism from various corners. However, some chose to counter those criticisms with “incisive” arguments like, "when you make the naughtiest guy in class the class monitor, he behaves the best".

So, what has the Yogi government managed to achieve in its first year that warrants a celebration? Let's take a look.

Moral to meat policing

The BJP, in its UP election manifesto, promised “anti-Romeo squads” for the explicit purpose of protecting “the honour of women". However, contrary to their supposed role (to stop and catch eve-teasers and troublemakers), these police sqauds went after innocent young couples and bystanders.

Next on their bucket list was illegal slaughterhouses. As was promised in the manifesto, crackdown on "illegal slaughterhouses" was brought upon with immediate effect without considering the economic ramifications of such a move.

BRD Medical College

Every year, Japanese encephalitis - a mosquito-borne viral infection of the brain - grips many parts of UP. Gorakhpur - the seat which Yogi held for 19 years as a BJP lawmaker - for long has been the epicentre. In August last year, the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur was at the centre of a controversy after more than 60 children suffering from Japanese encephalitis died due to lack of oxygen supply.

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What is curious is that before taking over as CM, Yogi Adityanath was very vocal about the epidemic that had plagued his constituency. In 2016, Uttar Pradesh contributed 25.5 per cent of Japanese encephalitis deaths in India.

Then why was the four-time MP from Gorakhpur and the incumbent chief minister of UP not aware of the massive oxygen crisis? (Apprently, the oxygen supply agency, Pushpa Sales Private Limited, stopped supply over pending payment after issuing several reminders since November 2016. As a result oxygen supply was cut off in the hospital. The problem, according to hospital staff, was being red-flagged by them over seven times in seven months leading to August.)

So, how is it that CM Yogi, despite visiting the hospital on August 9, didn't foresee the ensuing disaster? The issue resurfaced in October 2017, when 69 deaths were reported from the same hospital in four days since October 7. Of the 69, 19 were children who died in a span of 24 hours; 13 of them were newborns. The rest were suffering from AES.

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Eid versus Janmashtami

“When I cannot stop Eid "namaz" on the roads, how can I stop Janmashtami celebrations inside police stations?” asked Yogi Adityanath, unprovoked, while addressing a public function in Lucknow in August, 2017. Following that, Yogi accused the previous Samajwadi Party government of “banning” the celebrations on Lord Krishna’s birth at police stations, without any evidence to support the same.

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Yogi making a statement as bizarre as this is unexpected only to those who do not live in UP, a state where communalism and polarisation on religious grounds is an everyday affair. At the height of the Padmaavat controversy in November 2011, Adityanath said the ban on the film would continue, adding that if “those seeking head of Bhansali are wrong, then Bhansali is also wrong”.

In December 2017, members of BJP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Raksha Dal and Dharam Jagran Manch (all far-Right Hindu groups) clashed with the police in Ghaziabad over the marriage of a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, claiming this was an act of “love jihad”.

Back in January, it was reported that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) set up networks of spies who work as restaurant employees across Western UP, whose job is to tip off the organisations about any potential relationship between “a suspicious Muslim man and a Hindu girl”.

Last year, the Yogi government also asked Madrasas to record their Independence Day celebrations and send it to the district administration. 

These are but a few incidents. Last week, it was reported that according to statistics placed by the Union home ministry in Parliament, Uttar Pradesh led the nationwide increase in communal violence in 2017 - 44 people were killed and 540 injured in UP in 2017.

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Law and order

The Yogi administration came to power with a promise to tackle UP’s massive problem with law and order. In that spirit, armed with Yogi’s blessings, the police in UP carried out over 1,200 encounters, a result of which 45 alleged criminals have been killed. Collateral damage, however, came in the form of four dead policemen who lost their lives in various encounters. The National Human Rights Commission too has issued a notice to the government on these encounters.

With collateral damage also came hypocrisy. The UP government, in December 2017, ordered the withdrawal of a 22-year-old case against Yogi Adityanath - flouting prohibition orders to hold a public meeting in Gorakhpur in 1995 - under a new law passed by the state Assembly, which provides amnesty to politicians from “old, non-serious" cases against them.

The mismanagement of law and order, of course, reached its peak during Republic Day celebrations in 2018, in Kasganj, when a Hindu youth was shot dead following clashes between two communities. Rioting ensued, as did looting and destruction of shops and vehicles.

More than 100 people were arrested following the unfortunate chain of events.

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Last updated: March 20, 2018 | 21:23
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