'Yogi Adityanath will prove to be the most popular and effective chief minister, overseeing a regime of peace and justice, harsh on wrongdoers and rabblerousers, encouraging those who work for India,' says Tarun Vijay.
The media's surprise and shock over Yogi Adityanath taking over as Uttar Pradesh chief minister is really entertaining.
All the Raibahadurs of the secular variety suddenly look concerned about the future of the nation, social harmony, the equation with the minorities and the overall impact of having Yogi -- who is what they love to say is 'a firebrand Hindu cleric,' 'a rabidly Hindutva mascot,' a 'rabble rouser' -- as head of the government in India's most populous state.
Before proceeding further, may I know when was the last time they ever liked anything in the RSS-BJP Parivar?
Did they shower lavish praises on Narendra Modi in the last ten years?
Did they like Modi too much and declared he would be the best PM for India?
No, absolutely not.
Anything done by the saffrons anytime is derided, mocked at, contemptuously described as 'inconsequential' and a 'danger for the nation.'
For these Yogi fear mongers, ochre robed persons are born communal. Green is the colour of secularism.
These are the same people who front paged Modi as the 'god of hate' before the 2014 election results, They now show great anxiety about what will happen to UP with a saffron robed monk as its chief executive.
Their columns in the American media try to project that the people are worried about it too, seeing the declining space for 'liberal thought.
They are wrong. They are absolutely falsifying the current reality of India because their columns have always been driven by hate against a set of people and their programmes.
When they write such columns they insult the masses who decided in favour of a party's programmes and ideology in an overwhelming manner, defeating all those who had turned the state governance into a family joke and pushed people to a ghetto of communalism that saw thousand of Hindus flee their homes and hearth in search of safety and honour.
The 2017 electoral results in UP are the result of Hindu liberalism and a free mindset that has refused to come under the bigots for centuries.
If you can't question the most revered thoughts and can't air freely your doubts, you will be less of a Hindu.
Hinduism encompasses in its fold all -- atheists, believers, agnostics, iconoclasts, self-styled gods, temple worshippers, nihilists.
The only exceptions are violent, dishonest, aggressors who assault Hindus out of sheer hatred. A genuine difference of opinion is accepted only through dialogue, not violence.
Hindus have provided shelter to all persecuted minorities of the world and are still trying to forge a friendship with those rogue countries who have waged wars against us and continue to shield terrorists attacking our people.
How can someone who believes and lives this legacy be termed a rabble rouser, working against any community?
Yogi Adityanath was kind to invite me last year as the chief guest on the birth anniversary of Mahant Avaidyanathji, his guru.
What I saw at his Gorakhpur Dham was incredible. He runs several degree and polytechnic colleges, the best hospital catering to the poor and a Sanskrit college with free boarding facilities.
The grand temple in his ashram sees maximum number of shops run by Muslims and Muslims have a good presence in his schools and colleges.
There has never been a single incident against any Muslim in his area of influence.
Pity that journalists shield mullahs in Assam who threaten a young singer, but spend all their abilities trying to create a false perception about a person who happens to be a Hindu monk and someone who commands great popularity.
The rabble rouser is not the yogi, but the hate monger journalists and editors who spew venom against Hindu nationalism and political parties who believe in it.
UP is definitely not Yogi's Hindu Rashtra. We believe in a cultural Hindu Rashtra -- and that is all of India.
UP is definitely the living embodiment of Indian culture and civilisational heritage.
Socialist thinker and politician Dr Ram Manohar Lohia described India as the three dreams of India -- Ram, Krishna and Shiva. He wrote a long beautiful essay on this theme, which his followers have forgotten.
The moment you mention Ram, Krishna and Shiva, the secular media in India and the Western press, too ignorant of Indian roots, begin spreading fear -- 'these rabble rouser Hindus are now trying to foment riots for the three temples.'
Riots were always instigated by nasty forces who feared defeat, people persisting in the fire of religious hate.
Hindus saw it calmly even when Akhilesh Yadav, then UP's chief minister, appointed a hardcore Islamist -- Azam Khan -- to oversee the largest Hindu religious fair, the Kumbh Mela.
Though Khan had to resign later for mismanagement of an event that attracted 10 million Hindu devotees, the fact is that these seculars can go to this length to hurt and humiliate Hindus.
What if a BJP CM appointed a Hindu as chief of a Haj committee? What reaction would it create in the same secular media joyous to see a Muslim head a Hindu religious event?
Yogi's UP will be as development oriented as the best Indian states.
It will not tolerate humiliation or the forced exodus of any community from any place. What happened in Kairana is a blot on any civil society and must not happen to any one.
I believe Yogi Adityanath will prove to be the most popular and effective chief minister, overseeing a regime of peace and justice, harsh on wrongdoers and rabble rousers, encouraging those who work for India.
Tarun Vijay is a former Bharatiya Janata Party member of the Rajya Sabha.
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IMAGE: Yogi Adityanath takes the oath of office watched by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma, the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan), Goa (Manohar Parrikar) and Andhra Pradesh (Nara Chandrababu Naidu). Photograph: Sandeep Pal
