'Yogi Adityanath, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, is no stranger to controversy and finds himself in yet another tangle. The firebrand leader was scheduled to inaugurate a new building in Allahabad University on November 20 but protests erupted on Thursday morning, led by a section of students who have vowed to not let the “controversial and communal” politician enter the campus.
'Film star Shah Rukh Khan has found himself at the receiving end of a flurry of attacks and charges from BJP leaders over the past two days, with yoga guru Ramdev also chipping in to take a dig at the actor. Mr. Khan had recently spoken out against “increasing intolerance”, thus coming out in symbolic support of writers and film-makers who had been returning awards in protest.
'Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday compared Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan with Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of Mumbai carnage, over his “extreme intolerance” comment. This is the second attack on the actor by a BJP leader in as many days, sparking condemnation. Hitting out at the actor two days after he added his voice to the protest by the intelligentsia against the ’climate of intolerance’, Mr. Adityanath also suggested that he go to Pakistan. Mr.
'An outfit floated by BJP MP Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday offered all possible help “including guns” to the Hindus of Bisada village, as it alleged that they were being hounded following the lynching of Mohammed Ikhlaq. Several members of the group, ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ on Wednesday tried entering the village but were stopped by the police in view of the prohibitory orders. “We will go and meet Hindus who are being harassed by authorities.
"On 1 October, the Centre will issue a stamp commemorating Mahant Avaidyanath, one of the leaders of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation. There was a demand for a stamp on the Mahant by Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand BJP leader who represents Gorakhpur in Lok Sabha. Adityanath succeeded Avaidyanath as the head of the Gorakhnath Math... The Liberhan Commission named Avaidyanath as one of those individuals responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992.
"BJP's firebrand MP from Gorakhpur Mahant Adityanath has written to Nepal prime minister Sushil Koirala and constituent assembly chairperson, seeking a ban on cow slaughter and religious conversion in the Himalayan nation. He has also demanded that Nepal should be declared a 'Hindu Rashtra' as it was during the time of monarchy. He will also attend an event in Kathmandu on July 26 to press for these demands. When asked whether he had sought his party's permission to attend the Kathmandu event, Adityanath told TOI that since he was going as the head of Gorakshpeeth, he didn't require that.
'Tension prevailed in Madhopur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district after 150 Muslim families reportedly left their homes Monday, fearing a backlash from BJP MP Yogi Adityanath’s outfit Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) over a land dispute. Heavy police force including PAC personnel have been deployed in the village to prevent any disturbance. Kushinagar additional district magistrate Ram Kewal Tiwari admitted that there is tension in the village. “It is a property dispute. There was a minor clash and we deployed PAC.
"Denying rumours of “love jihad,” a 22-year-old woman from Meerut, who earlier alleged gang rape and forced conversion sending western Uttar Pradesh on the boil in August, said on Sunday that she had run away with a Muslim man out of her own free will. She approached the police complaining of a threat from her family, and in a written statement, denied rape or conversion... When the woman alleged gang rape and forced conversion in August, several BJP leaders, including Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s bypoll campaign in-charge in the State, took up the issue.
"Last month, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi declared that if Yogi Adityanath, BJP MP from Gorakhpur, had spoken of “love jihad” in Bihar the way he did in Uttar Pradesh, he “would have contradicted him”. It was a strong statement coming from an RSS-trained politician, which suggests that the BJP’s rising star in UP belongs to a different school of thought. Adityanath embodies a specific tradition that can be traced back to Digvijay Nath, a major figure in the line of mahants of the Gorakhnath temple of Gorakhpur.
'...Recently, a video surfaced in which he allegedly exhorted Hindu men to convert 100 Muslim girls to Hinduism for each Hindu converted to Islam. Yet, the BJP appointed him the star campaigner for the bypolls in 11 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh. In the past few years, Adityanath’s political presence had remained almost dormant. But after the BJP’s sweeping victory in the recent General Election, he is back with a bang. His rising fortunes became clear when he represented the BJP in the Lok Sabha debate on the sensitive issue of communal riots.
