The selection of firebrand Hindu priest Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh is a distressing sign of majoritarian politics in the world’s largest democracy and runs completely contrary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s self-professed goal of development and growth for all sections of society. With a track record of fanning flames over religious conversions, incendiary comments on inter-religious marriages, and criminal charges of rioting, as well as attempted murder and trespassing on burial sites, Adityanath is no inclusive leader. Instead, the so-called mascot of Hindutva (or Hinduness) seems to have been carefully installed following the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide win in the assembly elections, with an eye on the future.
Home to 220 million people and contributing a staggering 80 seats to India’s 545-member lower house of parliament, Uttar Pradesh will vote in 2019 along with the rest of India to decide whether Modi deserves a second term. With an unrestrained accent on exploiting the fragile religious dynamics, the choice of a hardliner such as Adityanath as chief minister demonstrates the willingness of both the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, to play along divisive lines and stoke communal passions to consolidate their hard-core Hindu vote bank and garner maximum votes in the national elections. An agenda that puts priority on banning slaughterhouses and reviving the controversial Ram temple issue will be damaging enough for the social fabric of the state. As often trumpeted by Modi himself, India needs to focus on economic growth, create a top-class infrastructure and provide stable and inclusive governance for all. The full scrutiny of the world will therefore be on Adityanath and his party — whether they carry out an inclusive agenda focused on grassroots development or push the state into the cauldron of religious politics.
As the chief minister, it will be Adityanath’s responsibility to ensure that all communities are able to lead a safe and secure life, and his government must be held accountable for any attempts to steer the state in a dangerous direction. Otherwise, India is looking at a turbulent period of polarising politics and that will take it back by decades.
