By Sushil Kutty
Any lingering doubts on who is in control in Uttar Pradesh went out the window the minute Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath disregarded all opposition to the restrictions placed on eateries along Kanwar Yatra routes, including the objections from NDA allies JD-U and the RLD, and ordered that the advisory asking eateries along ‘Kanwar routes’ to display name-plates with “true names” has been extended to the entire state of Uttar Pradesh. No sooner this was announced, neighbouring BJP-ruled Uttarakhand also followed suit!
“The ‘Nameplate’ will have to be put on the food shops on the Kanwar routes across UP. The decision was taken to maintain the purity of the faith of Kanwar pilgrims. Action will also be taken against those selling products with Halal certification,” the CMO of Uttar Pradesh issued his own advisory.
So, who is in control in Uttar Pradesh is pretty much settled. The answer is Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is free to take up Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav’s “Monsoon offer” and defect to the SP if a 100 MLAs are ready to jump ship with him.
Two, there is no doubt that the BJP’s situation on the eve of the bypolls in 10 UP assembly constituencies is a matter of concern for the saffron party. Therefore, the extreme steps to appease the Hindu votebank. Yogi Adityanath is desperate.
On July 19, the Yogi doubled down on the state government’s earlier “farman” that business establishments, particularly eateries and general merchants selling food and confectioneries, should mention prominently the “true names of owners and employees”. Issued by the Muzaffarnagar Police, the advisory was a matter of necessity and one that brooked no opposition.
But opposition was inevitable. Yogi Adityanath was called all sorts of names including “communal” and “Hitler”. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi said “Hitler’s soul has entered Yogi Adityanath” with Akhilesh Yadav, and spokespersons of the Congress and other INDI-Alliance partners questioning the BJP’s motives.
Not just INDI-Alliance parties, even NDA allies, have come down heavily on the BJP and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, flaying his intentions. The JD-U has spoken against the Yogi and Union minister Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD has also voiced its utter disgust. Muzaffarnagar falls in the influence-shetra of the RLD and Jayant’s party is disappointed.
But who cares? Not the BJP, and definitely not Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The monk is fighting an intense battle that aims to unseat him; he has enemies within the state unit of the BJP also, notably in the form of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who thinks he will make a better Chief Minister than a saffron-clad ascetic, and possibly Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Maurya has an open invitation from SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav to dump the BJP and join forces with the Samajwadi Party to form a government to replace Yogi Adityanath’s outfit at the helm of Uttar Pradesh. Like said, the Yogi is hard-up for choice and he will go to any extent to disregard the writing on the wall, if at all there is a writing on the wall.
The opposition hasn’t stopped haranguing the Yogi government and the BJP for fanning the “Hindu-Muslim narrative” in the name of “true and false names”. What is wrong if a Muslim runs a dhaba/restaurant and christens the joint “Shiva Hotel” or “Laxmi Dhaba”? Why should the Muslim man who sells fruits from his handcart have to display his name in big bold letters, why cannot he “just sell” and go home?
Well, it is ‘Kanwar’ season and the 240 km stretch is their route to nirvana. Their devotion to Lord Shiva entails restrictions including in the matter of food habits. Just like the Muslim will insist on “Halal”, the ‘Kanwar’ should be given his ‘Satvik diet”. Also, there are reels/videos in the public domain of Muslim vendors/dhaba workers “spitting on roti, dal and anything in between”.
The Muzaffarnagar Police says the advisory is to ensure that no situation is created for violent altercations to break out between ‘Kanwar’ and Muslim-owned eateries run with the nameplate proclaiming they were “Hindu joints”. This is not imagination but reality. Muslim eatery owners run their establishment with fake Hindu names and there have been innumerable run-ins between ‘Kanwars’ and dhaba owners.
The halal/satwik argument falls on deaf ears, neither side willing to give an inch. Fact is, the police have to intervene whenever differences spill out on the roads and then it is a free for all, with the Muslims alleging that their very existence was under threat. What will their children eat when they cannot earn because of a “Hindu boycott” of Muslim commercial establishments?
For the political parties and their surrogates and proxies it doesn’t matter who is suffering and who is the victim and who is the perpetrator? With elections as frequent as they’re in a bustling electoral democracy, political parties are forever looking for issues to divide and polarize the electorate. The Hindu-Muslim narrative fits both sides in the tussle for votes.
The ‘Kanwar’ will trudge the 240 kilometre on the highway and they will be on the road for a month at least. For the BJP, they’re vote-bank. Ditto on the other side of the electoral highway, the Muslim vote-banks of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party; the Bahujan Samaj Party and the RLD, as also of the JD-U of Nitish Kumar, all of them surviving on the largesse of the Muslims who are forced to hide their real names and use fake Hindu names to eke out a living.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is with his back to the wall. Elements within his own party are gunning for him along with powerful adversaries in the Opposition. Defeat in the 10 bypolls will end with the epitaph, “He Went With the Kanwar Yatra!” So, what does the under siege Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh do? Yogi Adityanath refused to listen to cries of secular outrage; to Owaisi calling him “Hitler” and to the JD-U and RLD’s opposition; to disregarding the BJP’s ex-Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who said the state government was practicing “untouchability” and religious ostracism in the name of ‘Kanwar Yatra”. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has his back to the wall. (IPA Service)
