Yogi Adityanath, born Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht, is a hardline Hindutva monk, member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP). He is also the founder of the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), a youth militia organization that has often been accused of instigating communal violence. He is known for his extremely hateful and violent speeches, inciting communal violence, peddling conspiracy theories about minorities, labelling Muslims as terrorists and criminals and addressing any dissent with bulldozer action, as well as branding the Opposition as a proxy for Muslim “appeasement.” He has also called for India to become a Hindu nation on several occasions.

Adityanath started out by organizing meetings during the 1990s to discuss the building of a temple at the site where the Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindutva mobs in 1992. He soon became the head pontiff of the Gorakhnath Mutt, a Hindu monastery, going on to contest and win the local elections. In 2007, he was detained for 11 days for allegedly inciting riots in Gorakhpur. In 2014, the leader of the HYV became the Chief Minister of UP. He has had a long history with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindutva groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

During the 2014 elections, Adityanath was reprimanded by the Election Commission of India for an election speech that “had the effect of provoking feelings of enmity or hatred” and “aggravating the existing differences or creating mutual hatred or causing tension between different castes and communities.”

In February 2015, Adityanath declared he would install idols of Hindu gods in mosques, if given the opportunity while speaking at a meeting of the VHP in Varanasi. Also in February 2015, Adityanath said that the “ ghar wapsi” (homecoming) program initiated by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a term coined by Hindutva outfits to describe efforts to re-convert people who were once Hindus, will continue unless conversions are banned. His government has even taken steps to prevent it by introducing the Anti-Terror Squad public outreach project to arrange counselling for allegedly radicalized youth.

In August 2015, he cautioned Hindus against “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory peddled by right-wing Hindutva groups and leaders that Muslim men seduce Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam, alleging that “high Muslim fertility rates” could lead to a demographic imbalance. In November 2015, he compared actor Shah Rukh Khan to Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed and said the actor should go to Pakistan if he did not like the atmosphere in India.

In June 2016, Adityanath said that Nobel laureate Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to lead the “Christianization of India,” alleging that it had led to separatist movements in parts of northeast India. In January 2017, Adityanath said that the family of Mohammad Akhlaq, a Muslim man who was lynched in Dadri, UP, by cow vigilantes on suspicion of beef at his home, should face charges for cow slaughter and be stripped of the monetary assistance they had been given after his killing. Investigations revealed that it was actually goat meat and not beef, yet his family faces criminal charges. In an undated video, Adityanath said “If one Hindu is killed, we won’t go to the police, we’ll kill 10 Muslims.” In another undated video, he says, “If they take one Hindu girl, we’ll take 100 Muslim girls.”

In a BBC interview in early 2020, Adityanath said that Muslims who chose to stay in India after Partition did the country “no favors,” adding that “They should have opposed partition, which led to the formation of Pakistan.”

In the same interview, he brought up the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (anti-CAA) protests in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, where women had come out in large numbers to oppose the discriminatory legislation that granted expedited citizenship to refugees from neighboring countries, except Muslims. “Men of a particular community, who are cowards, are sitting in their quilts and sending women and children out of their homes to protest against this law,” Adityanath said, falsely claiming that the protest in Shaheen Bagh was “not peaceful, and was causing trouble to commuters and residents.”

He also claimed that Arvind Kejriwal, then chief minister of Delhi, “feeds hundreds of protesting women and children biryani,” a veiled reference to Muslim “appeasement,” adding that Modi had been “shooting terrorists with bullets rather than giving them biryani.” In November 2021 he made a speech in Kairana, UP, where he said, “The people who did not want the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, who are against Article 370 ending in Kashmir, when are these people happy? When there are riots in Muzaffarnagar. When there is an exodus in Kairana, and when the Taliban is established in Afghanistan, that’s when their slogans ring out. But we will not allow the Taliban to be established, and whoever supports the Taliban, the government will stop it with strength,” implying that Muslims were terrorists who drove Hindus out of their homes en masse.

In December 2021, he said, “If any festivals would come, then before the festivals riots would begin…Every type of effort was made to disrupt festivals. But brothers and sisters, now the rioteers have been taken to where they were meant to go,” implying that Muslims were rioters who prevented Hindus from celebrating their cultural festivals.

In October, 2025, during an event to mark the centenary year of the RSS, Adityanath claimed that British and French colonialism were often discussed in history but “political Islam” was being overlooked, inflicting the greatest blow on “Sanatan Dharma,” a philosophical concept referring to a Hindu way of life, alleging that it continues under various guises.

He specifically targeted and banned the sale of Halal-certified products, falsely claiming that profits from such sales were being used for conversion, terrorism and “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory peddled by right-wing groups and leaders that Muslim men seduce Hindu women and convert them to Islam.

His social media posts are filled with anti-minority rhetoric, attacks on the Opposition and glorifying Hindutva ideology.