Yogi Adityanath’s biographer Shantanu Gupta, having made waves with his bestselling ‘The Monk Who Became Chief Minister’, returns with a new title ‘The Monk Who Transformed Uttar Pradesh’ published by Garuda Prakashan.

The book meticulously details how Yogi Adityanath transformed Uttar Pradesh as Chief Minister, in various aspects like law and order, air and road connectivity, education, health infrastructure, electricity, industrial growth, agriculture and other important aspects.

The book carries a foreword by T.V. Mohandas Pai, ex-director of Infosys and chairman of Aarin Capital.

Pai writes: “When Yogi Adityanath took over as CM, Lutyens Delhi — the name by which the power structure and supporters of the ancient regime are known — exploded in anger and derision. They questioned his capability to be CM, abused him roundly, and predicted the total failure of his regime. They forget that he was a 5-time MP, a person of great accomplishment as an MP going by his track record in Parliament, had toured most districts of UP and knew the living conditions of the people of UP more than any of his critics.”

The author, Shantanu Gupta, goes on to explain that governance under the SP and BSP governments institutionalized three things in UP’s politics — goonda raj, widespread corruption and a high degree of nepotism.

“Corruption became part of the basic grammar of UP. All development indices of UP remained abysmally low during those years, apart from the crime numbers, which always soared. Only industry, which was getting benefited from Uttar Pradesh in those years, was Bollywood � which drew inspiration for many of its criminal thriller sequences from UP, where Mulayam Singh Yadav had in-famously defended heinous rapists, saying — “Ladke Hain, Galti Ho Jati Hai” (Boys, do commit some small mistakes sometimes),” he writes.

The arguments in the book are backed by hard facts — the massive administrative changes that Yogi brought in UP’s work culture, how he overhauled policing in UP, how he electrified a dark Uttar Pradesh with the motto ‘Sabko Bijli, Paryapt Bijli aur Nirbadh Bijli’, how UP became an expressway state under Yogi’s regime and how industries, prosperity and jobs are returning to UP under Yogi.

Having chronicled how Yogi changed the perception of Uttar Pradesh as an un-developed, uneducated, corrupt, lawless and ‘Bimaru’ state to a transformed and progressive Uttar Pradesh, the author also showcases Yogi’s merit-based education system versus Akhilesh Yadav’s cheating-based system, the story of Yogi’s One-District-One-Medical-College mission to his Covid management, how Yogi’s massive pro-farmer steps rendered so-called farmer protests irrelevant, the cultural renaissance of UP under Yogi government and finally, how the duo of Modi-Yogi brought welfare for the poor in UP.

“Uttar Pradesh was disparaged as ‘bimaru’ and known for governance based on identity politics rather than all-around development, Sabka Vikas. Shantanu Gupta’s book is an important contribution to how an effective leader, rooted in India’s ancient ethos while looking for apt solutions for contemporary times, can bring real change,” says Sankrant Sanu, founder and CEO of Garuda Prakashan.

Many prominent scholars and journalists have applauded the book on social media platforms � Sr Advisor to I&B Ministry Kanchan Gupta, Author and CIC Uday Mahurkar, Author Harsh Madhusudan, USA Congressional candidate Ritesh Tondon, to name a few.

In Book discussion organized by Overseas friends of BJP for the diaspora in 13 cities of Europe – Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP’s Foreign cell head Vijay Chauthaiwale and Author Shantanu shared their thoughts. Sudhanshu Trivedi applauded his college junior Shantanu’s work and added that Uttar Pradesh has seen a sea of positive change in Yogi Adityanath’s tenure.

“Today the same UP has become second in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) ranking leaving many industrialized states behind. Under Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh has become the second largest state of India in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), surging ahead of even the industrialized states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Uttar Pradesh has doubled the per capita income of its citizens — from Rs 43,000 per year in 2015-16, when the SP was in power, to Rs 95,000 a year in 2021.

Institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO), IIT Kanpur, Niti Aayog and the Mumbai High Court praised Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath over his Covid-19 management and the way the Yogi government handled the state in the first and second wave. In fact, Australian MP Craig Kelly was so impressed with Yogi Adityanath’s handling of Covid that he publicly requested for Yogi Adityanath to be loaned to Australia for some time to manage Covid in his country,” adds the author.