By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath tweeted on the occasion of Hazrat Ali’s birthday and wished the general public, but this is unlikely to do much in changing his image of a hardcore Hindu nationalist.
हजरत अली के जन्म दिन पर प्रदेशवासियों को बधाई
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) April 11, 2017
Before the UP elections, Yogi had admitted that he wishes to change the names of various localities which have Islamic name or conjuncture to the name: like, converting the name of Islam Nagar to Ishwar Nagar and Humayun Nagar to Hanuman Nagar.
The interesting fact is that Yogi did not put the name changing as a proposal or an announcement, but instead took such actions directly. For example, the town Ali Nagar in his Loksabha constituency Gorakhpur was renamed as Arya Nagar, just as Miyan Bazaar was changed to Maya Bazaar and Urdu Bazaar was changed to Hindi Bazaar.
Once he batted for a change in the name of Azamgarh, because it didn’t reflect “the Aryan culture of India”.
It is evident in Gorakhpur that Yogi Adiyanath has changed the names of atleast a dozen of Mohallas. Locals say that he will do more.
Beyond mere changes in the name, it must be noted that it was the same Yogi Adityanath who wanted to establish the idols of Ganesha in every mosque of India. He often visits Varanasi’s Vishwanath Temple which is adjacent to Gyanvapi Mosque, the setup which is another controversial chapter after Ayodhya.
Addressing the crowd at Virat Hindu Sammelan in Varanasi, he said, “Whenever I visit Vishwanath temple, the Gyanvapi mosque teases me. If given a chance, we will establish statues of Gauri-Ganesh and Nandi in every mosque of India.”
Moreover, recently Yogi hit the earnings of millions of Muslim families by hitting hard on the illegal slaughterhouses and butcher shops. This has left Quraishis of western UP to fight for an income on a daily basis.
While Yogi was in the election mode in February 2017, he said that Exodus (referring to Kairana propaganda) is a serious concern for us, we will not let western UP turn into another Kashmir.
But with all these past developments, Yogi wants to project himself as a secular representative of a state where he already is subdued as a perfect Hindu hardliner. But supporters of Yogi, who were cherished seeing him as a Chief Minister, did not get happy seeing him performing the ‘secular’ role.
A username @frustitute and others claimed that celebrating birthdays is Haram in Islam.
@myogiadityanath But Islam does not allow celebration of birthdays
— Frustitute (@Frustitute) April 11, 2017
His supporters targeted him for acting like a ‘secular’ as any other politician. And as Hanuman Jayanti fell on the same day today, people asked him if Hamid Ansari congratulated the nation on Hanuman Jayanti.
@myogiadityanath मेरे हनुमान जयंती पर किसी कठमुल्ले ने शुभकामनाएँ दी क्या।
— दयानन्द सिंह (@Singhfatwah) April 11, 2017
@myogiadityanath सर ये तो कुछ ज्यादा हो गया,आज हामिद अंन्सारी से हनुमान जयन्ती की शुभकामनाये लीजिये
— pradeep kumar (@pradeep96640342) April 11, 2017