“Yogi and Modi, they aren’t human, they are rebirthed as Gods like Krishna and Rama. I worship them and respect them.”
“This is the first time Hindus, they know where they stand, they want to come forward now, they have the strength because of Yogi,” another supporter said.
Yogi often makes controversial and misleading comments, which his opposers say are polarising the Indian community while emboldening his supporters.
Last year, Yogi claimed Muslims who chose to stay in India after British independence were doing India “no favours”.
During the pandemic, Twitter removed a tweet where Yogi compared an Indian opposition party to COVID-19 calling it a “green virus” — green is associated with Islam around the world.
Yogi has even taken aim at Mother Teresa.
“She was part of a conspiracy to convert Hindus to Christianity. Hindus were targeted in the name of doing service and then converted by her,” he said in 2016.
“It’s a very assertive brand of Hindu nationalism that definitely targets the Muslim minority in very explicit ways. That’s his brand of political image,” said Dr Manisha Priyam from India’s National University for Educational Planning and Administration.
“It’s not just the bringing together of religion and politics, it’s the bringing together of an assertive and exclusionary view of Hinduism that is mixed with politics.”
Yogi has many right-wing, international fans — and one of them is controversial Australian MP Craig Kelly, who praised the Hindu monk for giving out ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19, even though it’s not proven to work.
Divisive legislation with a religious focus
Eighty per cent of Yogi’s state Uttar Pradesh is Hindu and about 20 per cent is Muslim, roughly resembling the makeup of the rest of India.
Despite that Hindu majority, India still has the second-largest Muslim population of any country in the world.
Legislation passed by the BJP has also had a Hindu nationalist focus.
Modi’s government has locked down Kashmir, which is the only Indian state with a Muslim majority, and his party campaigned for Islamic religious sites to be replaced with Hindu temples.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has introduced harsher penalties for people who kill the holy cow and longer jail terms for Muslim men accused of converting Hindu women to Islam.
“There were incidents where people had been targeted physically and violently, sometimes leading to the loss of life,” Dr Priyam said.
“For example, the death of Mohammad Akhlaq, because his fridge was targeted and people believed there might be beef in the fridge, and the holy cow is considered sacred by Hindus.”
In 2015, 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob over suspicion of storing beef in his fridge in his house in Uttar Pradesh.
Akhlaq’s mob lynching caused widespread outrage and ignited debates on cow vigilantism in north India, and is just one example of a series of Muslim lynchings in India.
“Cows are more valuable than human beings under this government, people have no value,” one voter in Uttar Pradesh against the BJP said.
“Thousands of rupees are spent to feed cows while people are dying of hunger. Yogi does not care about the public.”
The rise of Narendra Modi
When Modi first became Prime Minister in 2014, he managed to unite several groups among India’s hugely diverse population.
In 2019, he was able to dominate the parliament by winning a number of seats not seen in decades.
There’s a mythology around Modi that voters relate to — he’s risen from a small town, and he’s seen as a common man that’s not from India’s elite.
He says his government is improving living conditions, boosting sanitation and providing clean water.
Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister in 2014.(Reuters: Amit Dave
“We work for the welfare of the poor — a new house for a poor family means a new life,” Modi said at a recent political rally for the Uttar Pradesh election.
“The BJP brings in a combination of beneficiary welfare politics, direct cash transfers or supply of food grains to poor and socially marginalised communities with an assertive form of Hindu nationalism,” Dr Priyam said.
“It’s bringing in the lower caste of the Hindus and the upper castes among the Hindus to combine and vote as a majority group for the BJP.”
Protests erupt over hijab ban
India’s religious divide is coming to a head and gaining international attention, as young Muslim students challenge a controversial hijab ban at some colleges, backed by the BJP, in the country’s courts.
There have been protests across India, and Muslim citizens have said the ban threatens the country’s secular constitution.
These Muslim campaigners are trying to overthrow Yogi in Uttar Pradesh.(ABC News: Avani Dias
Right-wing Hindu groups have been staging counter-protests in saffron scarves.
“The hijab is not just a headscarf to cover my hair, it’s a kind of modesty, liberation, and I believe people have the right to choose what they want to,” Delhi University student Hissana said.
“This particular banning of hijabs at unis isn’t a single incident, there is a persistent persecution of minorities in this country.
“There’s a continuous hatred, continuous victimising of Muslim women in particular.”
Delhi University student Hissana says Muslims in India must raise their voices.(ABC News: Avani Dias
But Yogi isn’t making any attempts to calm the tensions, supporting the Hijab ban.
“This is their own choice, what they want to wear or not … but dress codes must be followed in schools, it is about discipline in schools,” he said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said relations with India are reaching new heights.
The two countries have a strong union against China, but critics question if Australia should be forming close ties with a government that groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty accuse of persecuting Islamic people.
Peter Varghese is the former Australian High Commissioner to India.(AAP: Mick Tsikas
“We clearly have some concerns in relation to China,” said Peter Varghese , former Australian High Commissioner to India.
“It’s right and proper that we raise that, and to the extent that we have concerns about what’s happening in India, I’m sure we can find appropriate ways to raise those as well.”
Young Muslim people like Hissana have called for international support for what she says is a threat to her freedom.
“This is a gradual process taking place, mob lynching, riots, these all come under the continuous stages of something big happening,” she said.
“So I think there is a need to raise our voices … and I hope Australians will be standing with us in our fight for our rights.”
This article first appeared on abc.net.au
