Foreign Media On Yogi Adityanath: He Praised Trump Travel Ban On Muslims

Yogi Adityanath is saffron-robed Hindu
priest, a five-term member of India's
Parliament and has more than a dozen
criminal cases pending against him,
including an attempted murder charge.
In incendiary speeches across the
sprawling and impoverished Indian state
of Uttar Pradesh, he has long advocated
for Hindu ideals and even exhorted his
followers to kill Muslims.

On Saturday, in a surprise move, he was
tapped to lead Uttar Pradesh by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya
Janata Party, which analysts see as a
clear signal that Modi is building on his
party's recent win in the state's elections
and moving to consolidate his Hindu
base in a run-up to the 2019 general
election.
In a front-page story Sunday, the Times
of India called the selection of the
"saffron hardliner" a "defiant assertion"
of the party's Hindu nationalist
credentials.
"By picking him to govern India's largest
state, Modi and (BJP President Amit) Shah
have sent a clear message that they will
be bound by neither the norms of
'politics as usual' nor the requirements
of political correctness," the Times wrote.
Adityanath, 44, has held sway in eastern
Uttar Pradesh since he was first elected
to Parliament at the age of 26, as a
"sanyasi," or devotee of the Gorakhnath
temple religious community.
Known as a controversial and fiery
orator, he has vowed to cleanse India of
other religions and in 2014 suggested
that mosques feature Hindu deities.
"This is the century of Hindutva, not just
in India but in the entire world," he said.
He has accused Mother Teresa as being
part of a conspiracy to Christianize India
and also likened a well-known
Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan, to a
terrorist. At one rally Adityanath vowed,
"If one Hindu girl marries a Muslim man,
then we will take 100 Muslim girls in
return." He went on, "If they (Muslims) kill
one Hindu man, then we will kill 100
Muslim men."
He was arrested in 2007 and spent 11
days in prison for violating prohibitory
orders in what was deemed a
"communally sensitive area," with
tensions between the Muslim and Hindu
communities. He had 18 criminal cases
registered against him according to one
tally during the 2014 parliament
elections, including attempted murder,
criminal intimidation and rioting.
During rallies for state elections this
winter, Adityanath's supporters often
chanted for Hindu-centric rule and
demanded that Muslims leave the
country. Adityanath also praised U.S.
President Donald Trump for his first
travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-
majority countries and added that
similar action needs to be taken in India.
Adityanath was credited for aiding the
BJP in winning 325 of 403 of the Uttar
Pradesh's seats during the state's recent
elections.
Uttar Pradesh having a population of
more than 220 million people, has a
history of violent riots between Hindu
and Muslims. In 2013, riots between the
two groups resulted in the death of
more than 60 people, with thousands
more displaced.
Analysts said that the state's electorate
will now look to Adityanath to deliver on
the party's campaign promises, including
the banning of cow slaughterhouses
and the building of a temple on a
mosque site that has been the subject of
a decades-long controversy.
Saturday's BJP announcement caught
even some of the party's most staunch
supporters by surprise. "I am thankful to
the party and PM Modi for considering
me worthy of the post," Adityanath said.
"I will take UP forward with (Modi's)
motto of sabka saath sabka vikas
(development for all)."