From Yogi Adityanath to Adityanath Yogi - UP CM is making a difference

India’s first saffron-clad 'sadhu' turned chief minister Yogi Adityanath now prefers to be called Adityanath Yogi – as the altered nameplate at his official residence suggests.

There is more to it than a change in the name. It reflects the change in the image of the 44-year-old chief minister, who is ostensibly making attempts to prove his critics wrong.

The signs of change have been visible right from the time he rode to the hot seat less than a month ago. Sure enough, it was no mean task for any hardcore rabble-rouser to turn into an objective and balanced statesman.

But the young CM of India’s most populous state has been doing his bit to make it loud and clear that his current focus is ensuring good governance.

After playing years of communal politics, when Yogi Adityanath took on the mantle under his new "avatar" with the much-hyped “discrimination with none and appeasement of none” slogan, he was not taken seriously.

The utterance was taken with a pinch of salt.

Evidently, the message was directed towards Muslims who had naturally become apprehensive about his attitude towards them.

However, each of his actions as CM seemed to convey that he meant business.

What seemed to buttress his claims were certain lesser-known facts about his life as the head of the Gorakhnath temple.

Who could imagine that Yogi had not only entrusted a Muslim with handling the temple's accounts, but had also given the charge of his "gaushala" to a member of the minority community.

Would he exhibit the same objectivity in governance?

That was the million-dollar question doings rounds in the corridors of power. Significantly, he has done nothing so far to indicate that he is deviating from the path.

His style of governance is a welcome departure from the past – particularly after the multiple regimes headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati or even Akhilesh Yadav.

To begin with, Yogi has chosen to run the administration without effecting any major bureaucratic shake-up that usually followed within hours of a change of guard in Lucknow.

Perhaps he believes in adopting the ancient thumb rule of ensuring delivery with the same set of officials — who ought to know that they are not servants of a political regime, but of the government of the day.

That practice was given up with the rise of regional political parties which believed in labelling officials with their respective stamps.

Be it chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar or Director General of Police (DGP) Javeed Ahmed or any of the other Akhilesh Yadav appointees, including principal secretaries of various departments, hardly has any official been shifted.

The only noticeable change was the transfer of the principal secretary to chief minister, held by the highly controversial and tainted IAS officer Anita Singh, whose only USP was her proximity to Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who ensured her placement despite his son and former CM Akhilesh Yadav’s aversion to her appointment.

Yogi decided to replace her with an efficient face, Avanish Awasthi well known for both initiative and drive as also his clean image.

He was literally air-lifted from the Union government where he was doing a stint as joint secretary.

A handful of other changes may take place, but surely no major reshuffle appears to be on the cards.

Perhaps, Yogi is taking a cue from his mentor Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, instead of judging top bureaucrats based on their association with the previous Manmohan Singh government, gave them a chance to prove themselves.

Only those who failed to live up to the raised standards of the new government were shown the door after a few months.

Several lethargic officials were busy pulling up their socks while the corrupt and the tainted were looking for cover as the message being sent out was loud and clear: Mend your ways or face the music.

Unlike his predecessors Akhilesh or Mayawati, who preferred to function from their official residence and avoided the chief minister’s office, Yogi seems to be changing the rules of the game.

He is setting a new precedent by transacting business from his office, invariably well beyond midnight — literally giving sleepless nights to the big "babus".

In making the chief minister accessible to the common man too Yogi is seen doing things differently.

Unlike Mayawati, who kept herself insulated, or former CM Akhilesh who began well by holding "janata durbars" in the first year, but eventually adopted the former's methods, Yogi has once again thrown open the doors of the CM residence to the common man.

And among the relief seekers seen at the "janata durbar" are the poor, cutting across caste, creed and religious lines.

Yogi may be a novice in governance, but his biggest strength was the moral fibre — something terribly lacking in most of his predecessors.

Government officials who have observed him from close quarters during their postings in Gorakhpur vouch for the CM's integrity, even as some of them feel he can, at times, turn despotic.

That is how he can make the most meaningful difference to UP’s rampantly corrupt and grossly lethargic governance.

Officials right from top to bottom have been strictly warned to furnish details of their moveable and immoveable assets — a supposed bid to identify those living far beyond their means.

Well begun is half done, as the adage goes. However, it needs to be sustained. Adityanath is yet to act against officials who are partly responsible for the existence of illegal slaughter houses or meat shops.

Even overzealous anti-Romeo squads exceeding their brief and harassing innocent couples have been allowed to go scot-free.

What will eventually demonstrate that Adityanath means business is the crackdown on every irregularity.

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