If we persuade ourselves to believe the official count of devotees during the 45-day long Maha Kumbh then we are obliged to infer its political fall-out: the post-Narendra Modi succession question stands resolved. Yogi Adityanath stands taller than the presumptive successor, honourable Amit Shah.
If the figure of 66 crore devotees who took the holy dip in the revered Ganga is correct, then it means that probably two out of three adult Hindus, roughly speaking, came face to face with the Yogi Sultanate during this “once-in-a-144-years event”.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister saw to it that the devotees saw “the spiritual expo” as a Yogi Show. The head-monk of the Gorakhnath sect has obviously learnt more than a trick or two in image-projection from the grand master, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yogi Adityanath’s handlers would not be wrong in concluding that their man has found a traction in the imagination of the majority of Hindus, mostly from the Hindi-speaking belt, because he was there almost every day during these six weeks.
The projection of ‘Yogi ji ka raj’
Whereas Shah dominated the news-screen for fifteen minutes when he took the holy dip; and Modi lingered on the screen a little longer than the Delhi voters at the polling-booths, but it was the UP chief minister who played the host and loomed large throughout the 45 days.
The millions and millions who thronged the Prayagraj ghats had a taste of the “prashashan” (administration). And, that simply meant “Yogi ji ka raj (Yogi’s rule).”
The combined publicity machines of the Union government, the UP government and the BJP and the RSS ensured a narrative of a grand successful celebration of “aastha (faith)” (read “Hindu aastha”). In any case, a Kumbh is an occasion for the convergence of all the psychological variables – beliefs, motivation, expectation, needs, rituals – to produce a collective empowerment for each participant.
Thanks to the Yogi administration’s exertions, the RSS’s agenda of insisting on a new, all-embracing category of “sanatanis” inched forward a bit. The same rite of immersion, performed by the millions and millions, cannot be without producing an infectious solidarity. The devotee has already been seduced by the pull of the “Kumbh” crowd even before the dip; men and women lost all revulsion against being touched, as they made the journey to Prayagraj in jam packed trains and buses.
The news of stampedes was taken in stride; any experience of the polluted and infected river water was dismissed as inconsequential.
Net-net, Yogi Adityanath has made an entrée into the mind-space of the “Hindu samaj.” Unlike Shah, who has earned the rather dubious reputation of being the instigator of the Hindutva-energised mobs, Yogi has positioned himself as a competent facilitator of a positive gathering of the Hindu faithful.
And, unlike the other exuberant exhibitions of the new Hindu “pride” – which often ends up in aggression and violence against the Muslims, the Maha Kumbh was a non-threatening crowd and the credit would go to Yogi for ensuring that millions and millions of Hindu men and women felt secure, safe and satisfied as they travelled to and fro from the Sangam Nose.
For Yogi, the Maha Kumbh was an add on. During these last seven years as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he has already bulldozed his way to the position as an uncompromising anti-Muslim icon. And, when Atiq Ahmad, that dreaded face of the “Muslim underworld,” got gunned down in the city square, it only added another feather to Yogi’s saffron cap.
He is as tough a champion of “law and order” as Shah. In fact, Shah left his days of glory in Gujarat, whereas Yogi is still in the saddle, unafraid to pull out the shotgun. A tough enforcer, seeing to it that the “difficult” Muslims stayed in line.
In the post-Modi succession sweep-stakes, the Yogi persona will be a formidable factor. Admittedly, Shah is not without aces up his sleeve. He can be said to have a near-total control over the BJP party machinery and perhaps most of the apparatchiks owe their organisational place to him; he also has the advantage of the keeper of the party’s finances, a resourcefulness that cannot be wished away.
Shah cannot add up to anything outside Modi’s shadow and patronage
Yet it is also a cruel fact that Shah does not – and cannot – add up to anything outside Modi’s shadow and patronage. Without the Prime Minister’s protection and indulgence, it is difficult to see Shah commanding the joyful and unbidden allegiance of the BJP crowd.
More significantly, Shah does not have a state of his own, in the manner Modi had established his suzerainty over Gujarat prior to 2014. And, as a very ruthless power player, the Prime Minister has not relinquished his command and control of Gujarat. On the other hand, after the Maha Kumbh – celebrated from every BJP/RSS housetop as a grand success, a magnificent revival and renewal of the Hindu samaj – Yogi Adityanath can be said to “own” Uttar Pradesh.
Also Read: The Politicisation of Maha Kumbh: Where Will It End?
He has become too big for the “central” leadership to even think of replacing him; he is no Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Rather, the boot is on the other foot. It may kindly be noted, if you please, that as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi has the same strategic upper-hand in the election of Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency that Modi himself had vis-à-vis L. K. Advani in getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar. A dependency that the Prime Minister cannot wish away.
The Yogi corner would remind one and all that the Maha Kumbh has produced a new Hindu solidarity and a new consciousness. Be it the RSS bosses or the corporate bank-rollers from Gujarat, or the not-so-gentrified babas and gurus and other self-appointed custodians of the sanatan samaj, each one prefer to do business with the young, healthy and saffron-clad Yogi rather than Shah.
As the Union Home Minister, he has displayed a marked lack of humility and sensitivity to friends and foes alike in his the saffron column; he has not endeared himself to the BJP constituency. Whereas the Yogi from Gorakhnath temple has acquired a certain mass appeal, way beyond Uttar Pradesh. The Modi-Shah- Yogi triangle will be get easily untangled. The BJP will experience turbulence in not too distant a future.
Harish Khare was editor of The Tribune.
