Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sprung a surprise with his announcement that his government will abolish school and college holidays on the birth anniversaries (jayantis) of political leaders. For many BJP supporters, the elevation of Adityanath, with his saffron robes and his reputation as a rabble-rouser, had come as a disappointment after the party’s landslide victory in UP. Their pet grouse was that development would get relegated to the background under Adityanath’s stewardship and this would dim the ‘sabka saath sabka vikas’ slogan that had won UP for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But Adityanath is proving to be a surprise package in his first days in office.
Far from an extreme-right wing agenda, the mahant has set himself the task of revamping UP’s crumbling education sector. The other focus areas include eliminating “corruption, lawlessness, casteism and the politics of appeasement”. Earlier, he had announced that English would now be offered in schools from the nursery classes, syllabus would be modernised, and officials have bean tasked with preparing a roadmap for the next 90 days, six months and one year. The focus on English is a clear winner. The acknowledgement that English is a valuable skillset for students in their attempt to access higher education and skilled employment shows that Adityanath is projecting himself as a progressive reformer. But the decision to take away holidays on the jayantis of such venerable icons like BR Ambedkar, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur, Guru Gobind Singh, Maharishi Parashuram and Maharshi Valmiki, casts the chief minister in a totally different mould.
These come attached with caste and political sentiments, which the Opposition will be eager to exploit. After all, it was while pandering to these sentiments that the previous SP and BSP governments began declaring such holidays, which now number around 20. But the proponents of backward class and identity politics would do well to recall the mandate that the BJP has won. It was an outright dismissal of the attempt to cobble a simple majority through caste and religious votebanks. So their attempts to raise a storm of protests over the annulment of the holidays is unlikely to pass muster. What Adityanath has suggested in place of holidays — a two-hour class on these holidays recalling the contributions of these icons — is a more befitting way to commemorate them.
Adityanath is already proving that preventing “communal appeasement” can cut both ways. The UP police’s arrest of Suresh Chavhanke, the editor of Sudarshan TV, for allegedly fanning communal sentiments, will send the right message down the flanks. But Adityanath cannot afford to ignore the actions of his storm-troopers, the Hindu Yuva Vahini. Last week, they barged into a house to “apprehend” a Muslim man and a Hindu woman. Such vigilantism, moral policing, and intrusion of privacy does not behove a modern state. Adityanath must ensure that his cadre also fall in line and do not vitiate the good work he is doing in other sectors. Already, the agreement signed with the Centre to ensure 24 hours of power supply to UP promises to be a game-changer. Adityanath’s biggest incentive to stay focussed on development would be the heights that such focus took PM Modi to. The economic revival of UP, India’s most populous state, is crucial for India’s GDP and economy to propel to new highs. Adityanath has begun well. After all, well begun is half done.
