Meerut: Almost 15 years ago, in April 2002, right after the devastating Godhra riots in Gujarat, the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath Yogi created a right-wing Hindu force with a handful of youth, which he named Hindu Yuva Vahini.
His private army, with its own constitution, gradually grew into several thousand, even edged out the Sangh from East UP, and established its primacy, and the supremacy of Adityanath, over every other Hindu outfit and leader.
So it is only natural that with its chief patron now having taken oath as the chief minister of the state, the ‘fringe’ outfit, which may possibly be the biggest non-Sangh Hindu group in the state, has now been mainstreamed.
In Meerut alone, as News18 found out after spending time with HUV’s district president and his new recruits, the cadre has grown from a few hundred to thousands in just one week. “At this rate, we would have enlisted at least 4000 members by the end of this month from just Meerut alone,” says Sachin Mittal.
Sachin Mittal’s house in Meerut’s Mangal Pandey Nagar doubles up as the official district headquarters of the Hindu Yuva Vahini. Mittal has been holding the flag of the Vahini in Western UP for a while now.
At the “office”, a huge poster of a smiling Yogi Adityanath greets you. Inside the office sits Mittal surrounded by a large group of 20-somethings. Over him hangs the poster of Bharat Mata. They have come from far-off districts to join Yogi’s outfit.
Mittal explains to them, “We have to be very careful. With Yogi Ji in power, we are being watched very carefully by the opposition and the media. We must not give them cause to attack us. Please, don’t do anything to embarrass the chief minister,” a 25-year-old from Shamli nods attentively.
A 17-year-old interjects him and says, “Bhaiya, Hapur se 50 ladke judna chahte hain. Yahan bula loon unko? (50 boys from Hapur want to join the outfit. Should I call them here?)” Yogi Adityanath’s appointment has brought a massive change in Mittal’s life too. Earlier, he would spend hours on his farm in Abdullahpur village.
But lately, he has had to spend most of his day flooded with phone calls and drop-in requests from those who want to join. Based on the enthusiasm he’s witnessed in just his district, and the information he’s obtained from his colleagues spread across the state, Mittal claims that lakhs of youth would have joined their organisation from across the state by the end of the month.
Though Mittal says the RSS is their “parent outfit”, the growth of the Hindu Yuva Vahini will have even some Sangh Parivar outfits worried.
Yogi’s personal popularity, says Mittal, has driven membership up. “I have been with Yogi Ji for seven years. In the old days, whenever I used to take people to meet him in Delhi, only a few people would come. Now, people come to me every day and ask me if I can set up a meeting. People have recognized that he is a man of action. That is why they want to join him,” he says.
In 2007, during the Gorakhpur riots, the outfit was accused of setting fire to a local mazaar and inciting communal hatred. But what role will they play now that their leader is the CM? The newly-made anti-Romeo Squads in UP have officials worried about the rise of vigilante groups. Ashish Kapoor, a Hindu Yuva Vahini worker, assures us that it will not be the case.
“Sachin Bhaiyya has given us strict instructions that we are not to take the law into our own hands. We had to go out on the streets earlier because the government did nothing. Now, we have a hardworking CM. There is no need for us to interfere with the administration’s work,” he says.
“However,” says Mittal, “our job will be to become watchdogs. The police have been doing a stellar job for the last few days but sometimes, they may miss something. It will be our job to tell them if something wrong is going on.
Apart from the anti-Romeo drive and cow protection, we will also use our network to find out about illegal activities taking place anywhere. For example, we all know that Sotiganj in Meerut is infamous for stolen bikes and cars being cut into pieces and sold for scrap. We will ensure that any such activity is brought to the notice of the police.”
Sotiganj, incidentally, is a predominantly Muslim area. Mittal himself has met Adityanath on several occasions. “Yogi Ji has come to Meerut several times. In 2011, 2013 and 2015, during his visit here, he made it a point to stop at my house for lunch. He met me, an ordinary worker, before he even met the local MP,” he says proudly.
During lunch, Mittal boasts about how the Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur has a Dalit head cook and Muslim servants. He then sets out in his car to take a round of the city. He stops at a local shop and is greeted with a cheery “Jai Yogi!” (Hail Yogi!) by the shopkeeper. Mittal smiles and says, “People have been saying this to me for the last seven years. But now the enthusiasm is different.”
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