Ashwini Upadhyay is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and a lawyer in the Supreme court of India. He is the former Delhi BJP spokesperson and is known for using legal means to push forward the hateful agenda of the BJP and its fountainhead—RSS.

Upadhyay is a rabid Muslim hater known for his bigoted views toward the minority communities in India.

Over the years, he has filed dozens of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in his career as a Supreme Court lawyer seeking a ban on “religious conversions,” making yoga compulsory in schools, making the National Anthem mandatory in schools, making Hindi— a compulsory language in schools across the country, removing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir among other.

In 2020, he filed five petitions seeking to implement the Uniform Civil Code.

In August 2021, Upadhyay organized a rally of about 2,000 people in New Delhi as part of an effort he called the “Bharat Jodo (Unite India) movement.” It ostensibly aimed to urge the authorities to end “colonial-era laws” by establishing a uniform civil code.

The speakers and participants made communal and inflammatory speeches. Many participants raised slogans calling for violence against Muslims.

“Jab mulle kaate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge [Muslims will chant Ram-Ram when they will be slaughtered],” one leader said.

Watch (English captions): Just few miles away from the Indian Parliament and PM Narendra Modi’s office, Hindutva supporters pitched for genocide of Muslims in India.

“When Muslims will be slaughtered, they will shout Ram Ram.”@nadinemaenza @IlhanMN @pbhushan1 @free_thinker pic.twitter.com/iGNuZxwlsN

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) August 8, 2021

After the videos went viral, the Delhi Police arrested Upadhyay and five other Hindutva leaders; Preet Singh, Deepak Singh, Deepak Kumar, Vinod Sharma, and Vinit Bajpai. They were all remanded to judicial custody. However, Upadhyay was granted early bail by a local court.