The Yogi diktat: Declare assets in 15 days

Lucknow: A day after being sworn in, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed all government officials to provide details of their movable and immovable properties and assets to the state government within 15 days.

This follows a similar order to ministers after he assumed office Sunday.
In his first meeting with senior officials of all departments, the CM said that his government would adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption.

The CM, accompanied by deputy CMs Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, distributed copies of the BJP Sankalp Patra (manifesto) and asked officials to study the same and ensure its implementation at the earliest.

The meeting was attended by around 65 senior officials who were given copies of the manifesto to prepare a roadmap for their respective departments, a senior BJP leader said.

The manifesto includes a loan waiver to farmers and a ban on mechanised slaughter houses. The CM also summoned DGP Javeed Ahmad and asked him to ensure that there was no laxity in improving the law and order situation, hours after a BSP leader was shot dead in Allahabad. Official sources said the CM expressed concern over the attack, and stressed that restoring law and order was the top priority of his government.

The DGP has been asked to hold video-conference meetings with the DMs and the SPs of all 75 districts of the state to take stock of the law and order situation and other administrative issues.

Earlier in the day, chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar, DGP Ahmad and principal secretary (home) Debashish Panda met the CM at the VVIP guest house. A 47-member council of ministers, including two deputy CMs, was administered the oath of office by Governor Ram Naik.

The portfolios to the new ministers are likely to be announced soon. Mean-while, 11 priests performed a 3-hour puja and havan at the CM’s official residence.

Purifying Yogi’s abode
Even before the first rays of sun peeped through the sprawling bungalow of newly appointed UP CM Yogi Adityanath, saffron-robed seers made a beeline to ‘cleanse’ the premises and ensure an ‘auspicious entry’ for the priest-turned-politician.

The five-time MP from Gorakhpur has decided not to enter the bungalow without proper prayers and purification ritual.

Broad Hindutva identity intact
Adityanath represents the powerful Thakurs, who, with more than 60 MLAs, have the greatest ever political representation in the state.

Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya are the face of Brahmins (around 12% of UP’s population) and Mauryas (the biggest non-Yadav OBC block in the state) – without whose support the BJP could not have managed such an overwhelming victory.

Happy that my son has served people: Yogi's Father
As Yogi Adityanath, 44, took oath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Sunday, in a village in neighbouring Uttarakhand 600 km away from Lucknow, families were glued to the television.

In 1972, Yogi Adityanath was born Ajay Singh Bisht (in childhood picture) in this village, Panchur. His ancestral home has been brimming with relatives and friends for days.

The day they learnt that Yogi Adityanath was to become chief minister, no food was cooked in the house. “I had gone to cut grass in the fields when we received the call. I dropped everything and came home. We watched TV and didn’t cook any food in excitement the whole day. We only realised when people started coming home that we had to arrange sweets,” said Shashi, Adityanath’s older sister, one of his six siblings.

She doesn’t remember exactly when Ajay, who left home for Gorakhpur at 22, became Adityanath. “All I recall is my brother telling father as a child, ‘you remained within the four walls of your house but I want to serve society’,” she said.

Years later, Anand Singh Bisht has advice for his son. “To serve the people, one has to enter politics and I am happy my son has been doing that for so long. The association that he has had with Hindutva and communalism, he has to give up and he has done that.”

The story behind Gorakhnath Math
The Gorakhnath Math is a temple of the Nath monastic group in the Nath tradition. The name Gorakhnath derives from the medieval saint Gorakhnath of the 11th century, a famous yogi who had travelled widely across India.

According to the principles of saint Gorakhnath, the monastic order does not follow caste conventions as other Hindu religious groups do. Thus, non-Brahmins may also serve as priests.

Adityanath, the current head priest, is a Rajput. He succeeded Avaidyanath, his mentor, in 2014 as the religious and temporal head of the monastery following the latter’s death.

Various cultural and social activities are performed in the vast premises of the temple in Gorakhpur city, which derives its name from Gorakhnath. The temple also serves as the cultural hub of the city on Indo-Nepal border. The Gorakhnath Math has a significant following in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Terai regions of Nepal.