LUCKNOW l THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. UPENG/2020/04393 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 2
FROM A MONK TO AN ADMINISTRATOR Kartikey Dev Singh
B
orn as Ajay Mohan Bisht on 5 June 1972 in the Panchur village, in Pauri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, the 22nd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath became a man of many achievements, even before he sat on the constitutional seat of power. There is lots more to him than meets the eye. Whether it is his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, or his leaving home in his teens to join the Ayodhya Ram temple movement in the 1990s to renouncing family life in 1993 and becoming a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief of the Gorakhnath Math
that follows the strict Nath tradition, the ‘Yogi’ in Ajay propelled him to a life of spirituality and is now ‘powering’ him to discharge the duties of Chief Minister. Even his staunch dedication to the Nath tradition saw his elevation across the religious organization’s ranks. Moreover, within five years of him becoming Mahant Avaidyanath’s disciple, the young Yogi Adityanath became the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha at aged 26. Thereafter, he has been elected to the Parliament from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections. But while the media painted him in bad light as a hardcore Hindu nationalist, Adi-
tyanath’s Parliamentary election victories and his continuous and unabated involvement in the proceedings of the house proved that he was not just a religious figure but a strong administrator too. Adityanath’s attendance in Lok Sabha was 77% and he has asked 284 questions, participated in 56 debates and introduced three private member Bills in the 16th Lok Sabha. Questions about foreign policy, developmental aspects of his state, on airports, on shipyards and several others prove that he indeed is a politician with a will and zeal to ‘get things better’. Not shying away from making hard decisions is also one of his characteristic
style of functioning as displayed in the shutdown of illegal slaughterhouses after he took charge as CM, forming of anti-romeo squads, stay on UPPSC results, exams and interviews, ban of tobacco pan and gutka in government offices while also suspending more than 100 cops in UP, a feat unheard of in the past governments. In fact, Yogi’s first priority has been a crime free UP and end of ‘Jungle Raj’, to give the public sense of security and safety, for which he gave the police a free hand and therefore, since he became Chief Minister till december 2019, as many as 5178 police engagements resulted in 103 criminals being killed and 1859 injured while the sheer
threat posed by cops to criminals made 17,745 criminals surrender or cancel their bails to enter jail! On his developmental side, his first decision to waive off loans of nearly 87 lakh small and marginal farmers of Uttar Pradesh, amounting to 363.59 billion and or inaugurating world’s largest smartphone manufacturing factory , in Noida for which his government was credited for making 50 megawatts of power and a 22-km-long electricity line in record four months, are just some of the examples of his administerial capabilities. In fact, Yogi is ‘discovery’ of PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, whose protection and free hand have helped
Yogi carry his UP mandate in an effective manner. Little surprise then, that prestigious New York Times sees in him a vibrant national leader of future while India Today-Karvy Insights’s “Mood of the nation” survey showed Yogi as best performing Chief Minister in India. Only two days back, Yogi swept UP bypolls by securing 5 out of 7 assembly seats for the saffron party. ‘Son of the soil’ and a grassroot leader Yogi has proved that it is not required or essentional to study at top business schools or Mussorie academy toacquire managerial or administrative skills. It would not be wrong, thus, to say that this Yogi would be ‘Ajay’ for times to come..
LUCKNOW