The Prime Minister’s Office this week called one of the two Deputy Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya.Maurya had tested coronavirus positive and was in a quarantine. And the PM apparently called to wish him a speedy recovery. But observers were quick to point out that the PM had not called other ministers in UP who had tested positive. Indeed, two of the ministers have died of COVID. But the PM did not call their families to convey his condolences. The call to Maurya, therefore, was seen as politically loaded. The PM called Maurya but the messaging was meant for the chief minister Yogi Adityanath alias Ajay Singh Bisht.
Maurya himself, a contender for the chief minister’s post, lost no time in letting people know that the PM called. He quickly tweeted the following with the hashtag #ModiPoochaHaal:
“Despite being very busy, the brilliant Prime Minister, respected Narendra Modi ji, asked me over the phone today morning about my health and gave me necessary directions with regard to my health. I am proud of our supreme leader. A current of new energy flowed in my body when you asked me about my wellbeing.”
While some observers jumped to the conclusion that Yogi’s days as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh were numbered, others were less impressed with the logic. Although Yogi is not the most popular chief minister, nor the most effective—despite one media house after another ranking him the ‘Best Chief Minister’—removing him at this point—with assembly elections due in the state in 2022— would neither be easy nor desirable for the BJP, they felt.
Chetan Bhagat, the IIT-ian-turned pulp fiction writer, had famously described Yogi’s anointment as CM as the naughtiest boy in class being made the class monitor. The monk-politician’s nuisance value is immense and he can be both rude and reckless. It is known that he was not a front runner for the CM’s chair in 2017. Union Minister Manoj Sinha had in fact been told to get ready for taking the oath. But Yogi threw enough tantrums and threats to alarm the BJP ‘high command’. Although his sway may not extend much beyond Gorakhpur, ever the rabble rouser, he can create problems within the BJP if he is asked to step down.
The ambitious and young monk (he is younger than Rahul Gandhi and is 48 years old) fancies himself as a future Prime Minister; and he is not just rude, he is imperious. Unlike Narendra Modi though, who is described as a good listener, the Yogi has little patience to listen to others. His imperious conduct has alienated ministers, bureaucrats and party workers alike. His monologues and his orders are often tiresome, concede bureaucrats, but he has had his way.
“He behaves like the Mahanth—loosely translated the Baron or the Duke---of Gorakhpur. He must summon people at all hours of the day and night, he must take all decisions himself and he of course has an opinion on everything,” explains a bitter bureaucrat. Others acknowledge that as chief minister the monk, who likes people to touch his feet by way of greeting, has been disastrous.
A religious bigot and Muslim-baiter, a vindictive person who abuses power to absolve himself but frames an innocent doctor like Dr Kafeel Khan, a chief minister who puts himself above his duty to the state and the people, is fast fading as BJP’s poster boy.
In the wake of the Hathras gangrape victim’s death, the state government announced the formation of a ‘Special Security Force’ with police powers. Details are scant but officials dutifully said that this was ‘a dream project of the chief minister’.
“Besides providing security to district courts, the new force will also be deployed at the upcoming (small) airports in Uttar Pradesh (in Kushinagar, Jewar and elsewhere). Private financial institutions too can hire the force’s services against a payment,” Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the Additional Chief Secretary and the chief minister’s favourite bureaucrat told the media.
Widely believed to be a shadowy force in preparation of the assembly election in 2022, observers wondered at the need for a special force. Uttar Pradesh Police already has a Special Task Force (STF) in addition to the PAC, an armed constabulary. “An SSF officer can arrest anyone or conduct a search on any premises without a warrant. No court proceedings will be possible against SSF members without the state government’s permission,” pointed out a police officer.