Tirath Singh Rawat is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. He is known for making controversial statements about women, the COVID-19 pandemic and peddling anti-Muslim rhetoric.

In March, 2021, Rawat made controversial comments on women wearing ripped jeans, alleging that they cannot provide the right environment at home for children, during a workshop organized by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun.

“If this kind of woman goes out in the society to meet people and solve their problems, what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at home. What we do, our kids follow. A child who is taught the right culture at home, no matter how modern he becomes, will never fail in life,” Rawat said.

In April 2021, Rawat said “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory peddled by right-wing groups and leaders, is not as big a “problem” in Uttarakhand, but said he would take steps to stop it, during a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) event.

In July 2021, Rawat claimed that those who believed that the Kumbh Mela, a massive Hindu festival organized under his watch, led to the second COVID-19 wave were “anti-national” and “anti-Hindutva.”

“If the Kumbh was a super spreader, why were there so many Covid cases in Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi-NCR? There was no Kumbh there,” Rawat claimed, adding that there was a conspiracy to “badmouth” the Kumbh Mela by “some people … And it is these people who from the beginning are against this country and against Hindutva.”

“Even in Haridwar, at the peak of the second wave where the Kumbh took place, the cases were far less than Dehradun and other places in the state. Here, the cases only increased when migrants began coming back to the state,” claimed Rawat.

In December 2021, Rawat attended a “Dharma Sansad” (Hindu Religious Parliament) held in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, where several hate speeches calling for violence and genocide against Muslims were delivered. Rawat also has connections with Swami Prabodhanand Giri, president of the Hindu Raksha Sena and Hindu supremacist who delivered hate speeches at the event, gifting Giri a sword in June 2021.

Rawat’s social media posts regularly promote the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP leaders, and his own public outreach programs.