"Light a Diya for Lord Ram this time, work on Ayodhya Temple to start after Diwali": Yogi Adityanath

The statement from the CM came a day after SP leader Azam Khan stated that the UP government will soon announce a statue for Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

Latest News: In a veiled reference to the ongoing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday asserted that wishes of scores of Hindu devotees of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya will soon come true after Diwali.

Speaking at an event in Bikaner, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said, "Light a Diya for Lord Ram this time, work there (Ayodhya) will start very soon. We have to take this up after Diwali."

The statement from the chief minister came a day after Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan stated that the Uttar Pradesh government will soon announce a statue for Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Khan said that Lord Ram's statue, which is likely to be built near the Sarayu river in the temple town, should be constructed taller than the recently-inaugurated 182-meter tall statues of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

Reportedly, saints in Ayodhya have been pressing for construction of a statue of Lord Ram similar to that of Statue of Unity. Located on Sadhu-Bet Island, Gujarat, the 182-metre tall statue of Unity occupies over 20,000 square metres and is surrounded by a 12 square km artificial lake.

Read full updates → Ayodhya Ram Mandir Dispute

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News Source: BS & Business Standard

UP Bypoll Results 2018 LIVE: BJP leads in Gorakhpur, SP in Phulpur; Adityanath sure of win

Lok Sabha by-elections in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Bihar’s Araria, being viewed as yet another test for BJP ahead of 2019 general elections.

Breaking News : The counting of votes for the Lok Sabha by-election 2018 for the two constituencies of Uttar Pradesh — Gorakhpur and Phulpur and Bihar’s Araria will begin on Wednesday amid tight security arrangements. The results are expected to be declared by Thursday afternoon, according to an Election Commission official.

Uttar Pradesh by-elections 2018

The voter turnout was 47.45 per cent in Gorakhpur and 37.39 per cent in Phulpur in Sunday’s polling. Ten candidates were in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates contested from Phulpur. According to the Election Commission, there are 1.96 million (19.61 lakh) voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, while the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat has a 1.95 million (19.49 lakh) electorate.

Uttar Pradesh by-polls 2018 were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively, following their election to the state legislative council.

Bihar by-elections 2018

Fifty-seven per cent polling was registered in Araria, Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak said. In the Bhabua and Jehanabad Assembly constituencies in Bihar, where by-polls were also held, the voter turnout was 54.03 per cent and 50.06 per cent respectively, he said.

Bihar by-polls 2018 for the Araria seat was necessitated by the death of RJD MP Mohd Taslimuddin.

→ Bihar Bypoll Results 2018 , UP Bypoll Results 2018 ←

Modi’s million dollar challenge: How to fix Yogi Adityanath’s UP?

Anyone who wants India to live up to its potential has to figure out how to fix UP.

Politics of India :   Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, is also its greatest challenge. It has about as many people as Brazil but, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, suffers from development indicators more similar to sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in Asia. Anyone who wants India to live up to its potential has to figure out how to fix UP. And that isn’t going to be easy. You’d need somehow to turn investors positive on a state burdened by overstretched infrastructure, an unqualified workforce, endemic corruption, hours-long power cuts and widespread lawlessness.

Last week, the state’s chief minister, a controversial monk-turned-politician who calls himself “Yogi” Adityanath, held a giant “investor summit” in UP’s capital, Lucknow. Modi’s choice of Adityanath to lead the state last year shocked many; the pugnacious Hindu nationalist is better known for his history of startling anti-Muslim rhetoric than for his pronouncements on policy or governance. The investor summit was part of Adityanath’s ongoing attempt to demonstrate that he is, in fact, as much a development-focused leader as Modi himself — and, perhaps, the front-runner to succeed Modi as prime minister.

So how did this coming-out party go? Well, it was certainly well-attended. The prime minister himself opened the summit and 20 of his ministers turned up to turn on the spigot of federal spending. They promised billions of dollars of investment in roads, waterways, airports and even something called a “defense corridor,” a plan apparently worked out in about 18 days.

The private sector was also in attendance and only mildly less enthusiastic. The UP government announced that, by the end of the summit, investor agreements worth Rs 4.2 trillion ($64 billion) had been signed. Such ‘memorandums of understanding’ have a peculiar ritual significance in Indian politics: They’re designed for both sides to bask in the glow of warm newspaper headlines, without any expectation that the pledges will actually be fulfilled.

The ritual was invented, like the state-level investor summit itself, by Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Both are now widely imitated. Such announcements are, of course, costless for the private sector and, if UP’s summit is anything like Gujarat’s, we shouldn’t expect that a commensurate amount of investment will materialize.

 → Modi Million Dollar Challenge ←

Babri demolition: How India, Hindus and Muslims have changed in 25 years

India’s economy has changed but social conditions are ripe for resurgence of destructive tendencies

Business News India : The demolition of Babri Masjid and the deadly riots that followed remain a grim reminder in India’s history of volatile politics and the sway it has over the minds of people who are bent on the path of destruction in the name of religious resurrection.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since December 6, 1992, when scores of Hindutva foot soldiers, purportedly egged on by some who would later be the tallest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, went on the rampage to demolish a medieval mosque built by India’s first Mughal emperor, allegedly after dismembering an ancient Hindu temple built in the name of Ram.

In many ways, India was at an economic cross-roads. The per-capita income of Indians was barely ~16,000 (or $245 at current exchange rates) in 1990. When the Babri mosque was pulled down, it fell even further. Added to this abysmal per-capita income was the high inflation rate. In the year the Babri mosque was demolished, the consumer inflation in India touched 14 per cent — a record high in many years.

A year before the demolition, inflation was still at a debilitating 9 per cent. Unemployment levels (data for which in India are highly dubious) stood at 4 per cent. For many Indians, who were just about making ~1,300 (or $20) a month on an average, the economy wasn’t something they could look up to for redemption.

By 1991, 18-year-olds were staring at a future where their incomes and standard of life would be no better than their parents. In 1973, when these young people were born, the per-capita income in India was around ~11,000 ($169 at current rates). From the time they were born to the time they became major, the average earning prospects of Indians rose by a pittance.

At the rates of inflation prevailing in the run-up to the Babri mosque demolition, this unimpressive rise in income would have been negated in just about three years. In effect, a vast majority of India’s population would have been at the same income levels of their parents, maybe even worse.

Click to Read → Babri Demolition 25 Years

Babri demolition, 25 years on: BJP’s transition from Ram to reform to Ram

BJP’s political narrative has been re-defined after 2014, with a new Hindutva mascot

 

Latest News : The year was 1989. The first general election in which the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) manifesto explicitly talked about reconstructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “By not allowing the rebuilding of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, on the lines of Somnath Mandir built by the Government of India in 1948, it has allowed tensions to rise, and gravely strained social harmony,” the party’s manifesto that year stated.

The year 1989 was in many ways the BJP’s chance at redemption after its predecessor Bharatiya Jana Sangh got its first shot of power along with its socialist allies after Emergency. In 1984, the party had managed to win just two seats in the parliamentary elections. The Congress, riding high on a sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, swept the country by winning 404 out of the 533 seats.

So, BJP’s redemption song in 1989 was going to be the Ram Mandir. With mandir on its mind, the BJP won 85 seats, and so began the party’s push for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, with none other than L K Advani leading the charge with his Rath Yatra.

The VP Singh-led National Front government that tried to throw a spanner in Advani’s Rath Yatra was derailed after the BJP withdrew support following Advani’s arrest at Samastipur in Bihar while galvanising foot soldiers for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The BJP’s egression from the National Front government set the stage for yet another election in 1991. The 1991 elections, widely dubbed as the Mandir vs Mandal elections, was perhaps when the Ram temple pitch in the BJP reached a crescendo.

Yes, 1989 was the year when Mandir found a mention in BJP’s manifesto for the first time. But its decibel still hadn’t reached the feverish pitch that came in 1991. The BJP’s electoral push was largely powered by the ammunition it had against the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Click to Read → Babri Demolition 25 years

Shia Waqf Board proposes Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, masjid in Lucknow

The board has submitted a proposal to the SC for settlement of decades-old dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site

 

Ram Mandir Dispute : The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board has submitted before the Supreme Court a proposal for settlement of the decades-old dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site, saying a temple can be built in Ayodhya and the mosque could be raised in Lucknow.

The board has told the top court that peaceful settlement between the parties was in “national interest” and would bring about harmony between Hindus and Muslims in the country.

In an application seeking to file settlement proposal, the board has claimed that they being the rightful owner of the disputed property were ready to give up “all the rights” over the land to pave the way for construction of Ram Mandir.

The board also said that to end the dispute, the state government shall also cooperate and allot one acre of land to the Shia community to construct a new Masjid outside Ayodhya, in Lucknow.

“Respecting such faith of Hindu community, the UP Shia Central Waqf Board, in the larger interest of nation, is ready to give up its all rights over the Babri Masjid land, a shia waqf for construction of Shri Ram Mandir with a view to bring an end to the dispute,” the board has said in its proposal.

It said that they had taken the initiative and held discussions with “non-Muslim stake holders” in the matter and accused the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board of “wrongly staking its claim on the Babri Masjid”.

The Shia board also claimed that the mosque built on the disputed land was a Shia mosque and, on the basis of evidence, it has been established that its last ‘mutawalli’ (a trustee of waqf) was a Shia Muslim.

Click to Read → Shia Waqf Board Proposal

From Mahant to Uttar Pradesh CM: Here's Yogi Adityanath's road to power

Adityanath is a familiar face in national politics due to his communal remarks from time to time 

Latest News -  The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has come as a surprise to political observers. During the UP campaign, Narendra Modi, who was the main campaigner, largely concentrated on the agenda of development or vikas. This was true despite his attempts, halfway through the election, to consolidate the Hindu vote through the use of communal speeches and words.

 

Nor was there any major communal incident or riot, as happened prior to the 2014 national elections. It is now clear that even if the BJP attempts to bring in development in UP as promised, the path to winning the 2019 elections will be through communal polarisation.

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 Why Adityanath?

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Adityanath is a familiar face in national politics due to his communal remarks from time to time, the latest being prior to the voting in western UP in an attempt to gain the Hindu and particularly the OBC vote in the face of Jat opposition. Born Ajay Singh (June 5, 1972), a Rajput from Uttarakhand, he holds a university degree and has been the MP from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency five times since 1998, including most recently in 2014.

 

He was appointed mahant on September 14, 2014, after the death of his guru, Mahant Avaidyanath. The Gorakhnath Math has been involved in political matters for decades, but Adityanath has made Poorvanchal his Hindutva laboratory since the late 1990s.(read more...)

Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue: The history behind the dispute (All you need to know)

The first recorded incident of violence over the holy site took place in 1853 

The Babri mosque dates back nearly 500 years when it was built in Ayodhya by Mir Baqi, a commander of the first Mughal emperor Babur, in 1528. Hence the mosque's name, Babri Masjid.

Here is the timeline to the Ayodhya dispute:

1853: The first recorded incident of violence over the holy site takes place during the reign of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh. Nirmohis, a Hindu sect, claim that a Hindu temple had been destroyed during Babur's times to build the mosque.

1859: The British colonial administration erects a fence at the site to separate the places of worship. While the Muslims are allowed to use the inner court, the Hindus are allowed the outer court.

1885: In January 1885, Mahant Raghubir Das files the first case, seeking permission to build a canopy on the Ramchabutra (a raised platform) outside the mosque. The plea is rejected by the Faizabad district court.

1949: Lord Ram's idols appear inside the mosque, allegedly placed by Hindu groups. Both sides file suits; the government declares the area as disputed and locks the gates to the premise.

1950: Gopal Singh Visharad and Mahant Paramhans Ramchandra Das file suits at the Faizabad court seeking permission to offer prayers to the idols in the janamsthan. While the inner courtyard remains locked, prayers are allowed.

1959: The Nirmohi Akhara files a third suit seeking possession of the site and claiming to be the custodians of the Ram Janmabhoomi.

1961: The Sunni Central Board of Waqf files a case against the placing of idols inside the mosque and claim that the mosque and surrounding land was a graveyard. (read more...)