Yogi settles for a quiet, green birthday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led top politicians and BJP leaders as well as several chief ministers, including those from non-BJP ruled states, in wishing UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on his 45th birthday.

But, the wishes from top leaders was all there was to the Yogi birthday that otherwise was a very low-key affair, quite in contrast to the high profile birthday celebrations of chief ministers that UP has witnessed over the last two decades or so.

Governor Ram Naik, who had earlier broken from protocol to visit former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on his birthday, went to the 5 Kalidas Marg official residence of Yogi to greet him. Yogi’s ministers followed, some visiting the CM at his residence and others, including union ministers, preferring to greet him on twitter.

The CM’s twitter handle promptly reciprocated to all the greetings that kept pouring in through the day during which Yogi planted saplings, launched apps and helpline to report illegal felling of trees before rushing to Aligarh where he launched several projects.

Former UP CM Mayawati, who courted controversy by wearing a currency garland on her birthday and former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav rode a Victorian era buggy especially ordered for him by his party mate Azam Khan led the list of high profile leader who used to celebrate their birthdays with pomp and show.

Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav who was present during Mulayam’s grand birthday celebration in Rampur in 2014 had avoided ostentatious birthday celebrations himself. He had instead ordered government primary and upper primary schools, including Kasturba Balika Vidyalayas, to celebrate birthdays of students. In 2016, a government order too was issued asking government schools to celebrate birthdays of school students on the last Saturday of every month. “Former chief ministers ND Tiwari and Kalyan Singh too were known to celebrate birthdays but the lavishness with which Maya and Mulayam preferred to celebrate theirs had few parallels,” a BJP lawmaker told HT.

Kalyan Singh, who is now the Rajasthan governor, makes it a point to be in Lucknow on his birthday.

Some felt that Yogi seeking ‘plant 10 trees’ commitment from farmers as return gift and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya along with several senior BJP leaders planting trees was also to pay tribute to late union minister Anil Madhav Dave who had in his will said, he would prefer trees being planted in his memory more than anything else.