Rise of Yogi Causes Concernedness of Many

Rise of Yogi Causes Concernedness of Many

                                                   

 Dr.  Keshab Chandra Mandal

E-mail: mandalkeshab2013@gmail.com

Introduction

India is a liberal democratic country and it has earned praise from the preservers and promoters of democracy throughout the world for its progressiveness and dynamism. The government of India, immediately after independence, introduced an authentic and healthy Constitution which granted seven fundamental rights (initially, later reduced to six) including the right to freedom of speech and expression to all its citizens. Indian democracy, like many other democracies in the world, did allow to all its citizens to elect a candidate of his/her choice and get elected as a member from three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions and Municipalities to national Parliament.  

    India, the largest democracy of the world, with over 1.21 billion people and 2.4 per cent of the world’s landmass, is the home of more than a sixth of the world's population. It symbolizes peace and co-operation in the international relations. This largest democracy is the second most populated country in the world with 17.5% of the world's population. India is projected to be the world’s most populous country by 2025, surpassing China and its population is estimated to reach 1.6 billion by 2050.

     Federal Republic of India is based on separation of powers into Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Central government is known as Union Government. The Constitution of India came in force in 1950 and power is concentrated in Parliament consisting of the upper house - Rajya Sabha (Council of States), the President and the lower house - The Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Supreme Court is the highest court of land and so also the High Courts in states.

    There are twenty-eight states with 476 districts, one National Capital Territory and Six Union Territories. State Governors are appointed by the President, while the Chief Minister and Members of Legislative Assembly are elected by popular vote. Central Government agencies are prevalent at local levels. The Constitution allows central control of state government (President's Rule) during time of emergency on recommendation of Governor. Districts are subdivided into taluks or tehsils, townships that contain from 200 to 600 villages while the union territories are comparatively small and centrally controlled with Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner appointed by President.

Constitution and Members of Legislative Assembly 

The Bidhan Sabha is the lower house of the state legislature in the different states of India while the upper house is called the Bidhan Parishad. Members of a Vidhan Sabha are direct representatives of the people of the particular state as they are directly elected by an electorate consisting of all adult citizens of that state. The Constitution provides that to become a member of a Bidhan Sabha, a person must be a citizen of India and not less than 25 years of age. He or she should be mentally sound and should not be bankrupt. He or she should also state an affidavit that there are no criminal procedures against him or her. Bidhan Sabha holds equal legislative power with the Bidhan Parishad (Legislative Council), except in the area of money bill in which case the Bidhan Sabha has the ultimate authority. The same eligibility criteria have been enshrined for Members of Lok Sabha also.

Qualifications for an MP

As per article 84 of the constitution, a person is qualified to be a member of parliament provided he/she is a citizen of India, has completed 30 years of age in case of Rajya Sabha and 25 years in case of Lok Sabha, possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament. The other qualifications for MPs as mentioned in the Representation of People Act (1951) are as follows:

    (a) Only an elector can be elected. Thus, the candidate must be registered as a voter in a parliamentary constituency and must be eligible to vote. If due to any reason the person loses eligibility to vote, he would lose eligibility to contest also. If a person is jailed or remains in lawful detention at the time of elections, he shall not be eligible for voting. However, if a person is in preventive custody, he can vote. It is not necessary that a person should be registered as a voter in the same constituency. This is applicable for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. (b) A person from reserved category only can contest election if the Lok Sabha seat is reserved for these categories. However, an SC/ST person can contest election on an unreserved seat also.

    (c) The constitution of India has provided (in article 102) that a member of parliament will be disqualified for membership if he holds any office of profit under the Union or state government (except that of a minister or any other office exempted by Parliament). (d) If he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a court, will be considered as disqualified. (e) If he is an undischarged insolvent or he has ceased to be a citizen of India, he could not be eligible for contesting as an MP.

    Other conditions for disqualification mentioned in Representation of People Act (1951) are as follows: He must not have been found guilty of certain election offences and corrupt practices. He must not have been convicted for any offence that results in imprisonment for two or more years. However, detention under preventive detention law is not disqualification. He must not have failed to lodge an account of election expenses within stipulated time. He must not have any interest in government contracts, works and services. He must not be a director or managing personnel in a company / organization in which government has at least 25% share. He must not have been dismissed from government service due to corruption or disloyalty to state. He must not have been convicted for promoting enmity between groups. He must not have been punished for supporting social crimes such as untouchability, sati, dowry etc.

The USA and Canadian Constitutions

The Constitution of the United States requires that Senators must be at least 30 years old, U.S. citizenship for a minimum of 9 years and residents of the state they were elected in, while Members of the House of Representatives are required to be at least 25 years old, U.S. citizenship for a minimum of 7 years and residents of the state they were elected in. Additional stipulations may be imposed by the states. Similarly, the prospective candidates in Canada are required to meet all of the criteria set out in the Canada Elections Act. The basic requirements for contesting an election for a candidate are that one must be a Canadian citizen, completed at least 18 years on election day and he/she must file a Nomination Paper (EC 20010) with the returning officer for the electoral district (riding) where he/she intends to run, along with all other documents required by the nomination process.

   The right to run in a federal election is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The relevant procedures and responsibilities of candidates are set out in Part 6 of the Act. However, any person qualified as an elector may run for election. One person may seek election in only one electoral district at a time; besides, he/she does not need to reside in the district. On the other hand, Ontario’s 107 Members of Provincial Parliament are elected to represent the concerns of their constituents regarding provincial responsibilities at the Legislature and in their ridings. Ontario is the only province in Canada to use the term "Member of Provincial Parliament" as the title of its elected provincial representatives. To be eligible to run for the position of an Ontario MPP, candidates must be 18 years of age or older, a Canadian citizen, and a resident of the province.

Qualifications for the Chief Minister in India

The minimum qualification required to be a Chief Minister of an Indian state is that he or she needs to be a politician who holds or seeks an office within a government, usually by means of an election, voted for either by people or by a definitive group in the government. Besides, one need to be a citizen of India and should be a member of the state legislature. If a person is elected chief minister who is not a member of the legislature, then he/she must get elected within 6 months of taking over the charge and lastly he/she should be of 25 years of age or more. The chief minister is elected through a majority in the state legislative assembly. This is procedurally established by the vote of confidence in the legislative assembly, as suggested by the governor of the state who is the appointing authority. 

Early Career of Yogi Adityanath

Recently the selection of Yogi Adityanath in the chair of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has raised a storm of debate in national politics in India. He is a hermit as well a politician. Generally the works of a hermit is centered round performing worship, meditation, cleaning the deity, cleaning the temple compound, plucking flowers, making garlands, creating disciples, giving them nam mantras, guiding them in the good path and in a word, serving the God through the serving of poor and unprivileged peoples. Yogi Adityanath is a Hindu priest. Yogi’s choice is basically based for his popularity, charisma and strong Hindutva base, which made him most favorite to the RSS, who have a great influence on the present government. 

    Let us know about Yogi Adityanath. Who this person is and what are his achievements so far in both religious sector and political field. He was born as Ajay Singh Bisht on 5^th June 1972 in a Garhwali Rajput family. His father Anand Singh Bisht was a forest ranger. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarkhand.  He left home at the age of 21 years around 1990s to join the Ayodhya Ram Temple Movement. He came under the influence of Mahant Avaudyanath, the chief priest of the Gorakhnath Math, and became his disciple. Subsequently he was given the name 'Yogi Adityanath' and designated as the successor of the Mahant Avaidyanath. While based in Gorakhpur after his initiation, Adityanath has often visited his ancestral village, establishing a school there in 1998. 

    The Yogi is a priest and firebrand political leader of Uttar Pradesh, who was a major force behind the latest UP elections. As a result of his loyalty to the RSS, a prominent campaigner in the latest elections, popularity among the sants and sadhus and a large number of Hindus, the BJP party leaders nominated him as the Chief Minister of the Uttar Pradesh. Prior to his selection as the CM, he was the Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur constituency, Uttar Pradesh for five consecutive terms since 1998 (in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections). Adityanath was the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha at 26. Besides, he was the Mahant or head priest of the Gorakhnath Math, since September 2014, after the death of his spiritual mentor Mahant Avaidyanath. He also founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an extremist and militant youth organization that has been involved in revival of Hindu religious sentiments.

Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

Yogi Adityanath, the prominent campaigner for the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, was appointed Chief Minister of the state on 19 March 2017 after BJP’s landslide victory in the assembly elections. After being the Chief Minister the put a ban on the illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh. He also ordered the forming of anti-romeo squads and imposed a blanket ban on cow-smuggling. Moreover, he also imposed a stay on UPPSC results, exams and interviews till further order. He imposed a ban on tobacco, pan and gutka in government offices across the state and made the officials pledge to devote 100 hours every year for the Swachh Bharat Mission. More than 100 policemen were suspended by the Uttar Pradesh police for their alleged involvement in illegal activities.

    After becoming the CM of UP, he kept around 36 ministries to himself including Home, Housing, Town and country planning department, Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies, Food Security and drug administration, Economics and statistics, Mines and Minerals, Flood control, stamp and registry, prison, general administration, secretariat administration, vigilance, personnel and appointment, information, institutional finance, planning, estate department, urban land, UP state reorganization committee, administration reforms, program implementation, national integration, infrastructure, coordination, language, external aided project, Relief and Rehabilitation, Public Service Management, Rent Control, Consumer protection, weights and measures. Prior to becoming the Chief Minister in 2005, Adityanath led a 'purification drive' which involved the conversion of Christians to Hinduism. In one such instance, 1,800 Christians were reportedly converted to Hinduism in the town of Etah in Uttar Pradesh.  He said, "I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu state)." 

    In an undated video that surfaced on YouTube during August 2014, Adityanathji, reportedly during a public speech at Azamgarh, referring to the religious conversions due to inter-religious marriages, has said, "if they take one Hindu girl, we will take 100 Muslims girls." In the same video, he continues to say, "if they kill one Hindu, there will be 100 …." and pauses. In another incident, in June 2015, Adityanath, while talking about Surya Namaskara, and Yoga has said, "those who want to avoid Yoga can leave Hindustan". He added, "my humble request to those who see communalism in even Sun God would be to drown themselves in the sea or live in a dark room for the rest of their lives.  He has praised the newly elected US President Donald Trump of the United States of America as Mr. Trump also enacted a ban on citizens from 7 Muslim-majority countries entering the United States and has called for India to adopt similar policies to tackle terrorism.

Conclusions

On the basis of above discussions two things might be occurred to the readers. One, the Indian democracy is as liberal as its western counterparts that do not put any educational barrier to its adult citizens for getting elected as members of legislative assembly or parliament. Secondly, Mr. Adityanath is the rarest of rare chief ministers so far India has produced. He is unique, but still falls behind, to some extent, Smt. Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, who lives in a tiled roof house. By entering in 5 Kalidas Marg, Lucknow, official bungalow of Chief Minister, Adityanathji merges with his other colleagues in Indian states. Also another issue will strike the readers, which was proved from the above analysis that he is a staunch supporter of Hindu religious ethics and culture, who used political power and authority to reestablish traditional Hindu culture and norms. He did not care even to court arrest and suffer jail sentence for the cause of religious ethics. This kind of heroism combined with dreams and dedication is rarely observed among the Hindu yogis in the 21^st century in any country of the world. 

    In a latest survey report published in The Hindu (dated 26 March, 2017) which enumerates the opinions of 18,576 citizens in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, has been brought out under the aegis of the Global Barometer Survey and conducted by Lokniti, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, and Jain University, Bengaluru. The report said, “Support for religious leaders reflects is not so much a vote of confidence in their credentials but a clear frustration with political class. The increased religious polarization that societies in countries of South Asia were witnessing in the recent past might have also contributed to this unconscious assertion of faith in the capacities of religious leaders.” 

   If the frustration and distrust of the voters on traditional politicians, who often tell lies, hoodwink their voters, make blank promises before elections, live luxurious lives, get involved in illegal activities and sometimes hurt the sentiments of their voters with unparliamentary words and actions cause the voters’ choice or tilt toward the saints and yogis, the so called political leaders cannot help but accepting the happenings. They are mainly responsible for the uprising of India’s sants and sadhus. A large section of citizenry is also gasping for coming out of the clutches of some corrupt politicians and like to breath in open air of democracy with all civil and constitutional rights. However, the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh must be the preserver and promoter of democracy, and take all cares before imposing any restrictions on people’s democratic rights, so that the new government could be claimed as a better government.