In fresh heat on Yogi govt, demolition stokes old Gorakhpur rivalry, feeds into Brahmin anger

The Samajwadi Party, which sees a chance to woo the Brahmins away from the BJP, has accused the Adityanath government of doing “caste politics”. The party raised the issue in the Assembly, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on August 1, a day after the demolition: “BJP’s bulldozer would so far target shops or houses. Now it has started rolling over respect of the dead.”

Akhilesh, who demanded that the platform be reconstructed, could not keep his promise to visit Tanda on Tiwari’s birth anniversary Monday, when the statue was to be unveiled, but sent senior SP Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey instead. Tiwari’s sons Bhishm Shankar alias Kushal and Vinay Shankar, both aspiring politicians, were present.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, who has made his rift with Adityanath apparent since the Lok Sabha results, has also waded into the Tiwari row. Asked about the statue row, Maurya said: “Gorakhpur waale jaanen yaar, ye sarkar ka mamla nahin hai (Let those from Gorakhpur figure this one out, it is not a matter for the government).”

The writ of Tiwari, who rose to fame with student politics in Gorakhpur in the late 70s, at one time ran from Gorakhpur, to Bihar and up to Nepal. He won his first Assembly election while jailed, from Gorakhpur’s Chillupar in 1985, as an Independent, and retained the seat until 2007 (winning on the ticket of the Loktantrik Congress). In 2007 and 2012, he lost to BSP candidate Rajesh Tripathi, a fellow Brahmin.

With Eastern UP covering districts such as Varanasi, Ayodhya and Allahabad, the region’s politics sets the tone of UP politics elsewhere, helping further expand Tiwari’s influence.

Om Prakash Shukla, who also dabbled in politics after being a student leader, said: “Tiwari came to be known as the undisputed leader of Brahmins in eastern UP after he won the 1985 Assembly elections. Since the Chillupar seat is Brahmin-dominated, with the Dalits and Nishads too in good numbers, Tiwari managed to garner support across all three groups.”

A retired professor of Gorakhpur University, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “It was due to Tiwari’s undisputed influence that Haata became a power centre besides the Gorakhnath temple and Mutt. This was around the ’90s, when the Ram Temple movement was at its height. Haata and the Gorakhpur Mutt eventually earned an identity across UP as mentors of Brahmins and Thakurs, respectively.”

While the power of the Gorakhnath Mutt is at its peak now with Adityanath as CM, Tiwari too was for a long time at the heart of power, including as Cabinet minister in the BJP governments led by Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh, as well as of the Mayawati-led BSP and Mulayam Singh Yadav-led SP governments between 1997 and 2007.

All reportedly changed after Adityanath took oath as CM on March 19, 2017, for the first time. Just over a month later, on April 23, a large Gorakhpur Police contingent raided the no-go Haata, and arrested six alleged aides of Tiwari under the Arms Act. A diminished Tiwari passed away a month later.

In February this year, there was another raid on Haata by the Enforcement Directorate, claiming that Tiwari’s firm Gangotri Enterprises had duped banks of crores. The investigation is still on.

Tiwari has dozens of other criminal cases lodged against him in different districts. But last year’s raid was the first against him in his 20 years of free run.

His funeral procession saw thousands in attendance, with flower petals showered from roofs.

Of his two sons, Kushal and Vinay are a former MP and MLA of the BSP. Kushal, who contested the recent Lok Sabha elections on the SP ticket from Domariyaganj, lost to the BJP’s Jagdambika Pal.

Kushal told The Indian Express that the government was wrong in demolishing the platform. “Do we now need permission of the government to breathe? A group of about a dozen pradhans had given an application for the installation of the statue.”

According to Kushal, the application was forwarded to the District Magistrate (DM). “The DM not only rejected the application but also sent a team and the platform was demolished.”

The administration claims it had got complaints that gram panchayat land was being used to raise the statue.

Calling the statue an “initiative of the locals and the pradhans”, with no involvement of his family, Kushal said: “I have been told that an application for installation of a statue on even private land needs to be sent to the DM, who sends it to the government for approval.”

Accusing the SP of doing “electoral politics” and saying there was no place for Brahmins in its politics, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said: “Permission for the statue will be given provided it is sought as per due procedure.”