'If Divided, We'll Be Hacked Down': Yogi Adityanath Says What Everyone's Thinking

“Batenge toh katenge (If we are divided, we will be cut down)." These three words from Yogi Adityanath’s address in Agra on the occasion of Janmashtami on Monday, 26 August, seemed to have hit a raw nerve among both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters and detractors. 

Let’s keep the conjunction (toh) aside and focus on the verbs (batenge, katenge) to see why they are evoking passionate responses from across the political spectrum.

For better context, here is what Yogi said immediately before and after that utterance (translated): “There cannot be anything above the country. Absolutely nothing. The country will only be strengthened when we are united and noble. Batenge toh katenge. (crowd cheers at this point). You are seeing what is happening in Bangladesh. Those mistakes should not be made here.” 

To begin with, this statement shows once again that Yogi would rather create a stir by talking straight rather than temper his speech to avoid the heat. Clearly, the comment was meant for the Hindu electorate of Uttar Pradesh. In an age when administrators are known for dipping their speeches in a jar of sarkari jargon before dishing them out, Yogi’s straight talk stands apart.

It also shows conviction to publicly allude to something that perhaps all BJP leaders would confess to in private — the setback in Lok Sabha 2024 was due to a division of the Hindu vote. Yogi drew cheers from the crowd not because he offered a unique insight but because he put into words what the people knew in their minds. 

Now let’s get to the two words:

1. Batenge

2. Katenge

Batenge: A reference to the Lok Sabha results where the BJP’s broad pan-caste coalition suffered substantial attrition. The fact that a Hindu coalition came undone barely five months after the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram Mandir in Uttar Pradesh would have made it a bitter truth to accept for someone like Yogi. 

With "batenge," Yogi seems to be giving the following message to BJP cadres and supporters in Uttar Pradesh: 'I know what went wrong in the Lok Sabha results. And starting now, I am working to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” 

Katenge: This writer’s argument is that between now and 2027, Yogi would want to raise the stakes so much that by the time the assembly election comes around in Uttar Pradesh, the choice is not between two ideologies or parties but between security and a threatened existence. 

And how would he do that? By playing to his strength. 

Yogi Adityanath’s greatest strength is his delivery on the law and order front. Akhilesh Yadav’s greatest weakness is his delivery on the law and order front. Yogi would seek to convince Uttar Pradesh voters that the cost of electing a Samajwadi Party (SP) government is compromising the very security of their family. 

In this task, the BJP keeps getting unintended support from the SP. 

Here are a few instances to refresh the reader’s memory: 

1. During the campaign for the assembly election in 2022, Mukhtar Ansari’s son, Abbas, said that once the SP’s alliance government is formed, there will be no transfer of any official for the first six months. "Pehle hisaab-kitaab hoga" (implying that first scores will be settled). He claimed that he had already spoken to Akhilesh ‘bhaiya’ about it. 

2. The Ayodhya rape case and the way SP appeared to go soft on the main accused, Moid Khan, sent a message that little has changed between 2017 and now. It also ignited murmurs: if the SP and its leaders are behaving in this manner on winning the most number of Lok Sabha seats in the state, what will be the situation if they gain a majority in an assembly election?

There’s another way in which Yogi’s call for unity (among Hindus) ties in with his apparent attempt to raise the stakes for UP 2027. The provision of law and order in Uttar Pradesh today is inevitably judged through the lens of the religious community. Notwithstanding that criminals like Vikas Dubey were also served justice, Yogi’s focus on security today is perceived, both among supporters and critics, as proof of his ‘animosity with the minorities’.

Here too, the SP has made its contributions. Its lax approach towards law and order, giving tickets to rank criminals from the community, and going soft in cases where the accused was a Muslim, established the SP as an appeaser of the worst elements within the minority community.

With his choice of the word "katenge" and then tying it with what’s happening in Bangladesh, Yogi is emphasising to the Hindu electorate that the cost of disunity is putting an Islamist-appeasing party in power, and the cost of that is physical security. 

If the morning of 5 June is taken as a starting point to see which BJP leader is the first off the blocks to come up with a clear, comprehensive response to the setback of the Lok Sabha election, then Yogi appears to be leading in that race at the moment.