Manish Yadav is a far-right Hindu leader from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He is the President of a Hindu militant organization- the Hindu Army. After quitting the Samajwadi Party in 2018 after a five-year stint, he embarked on a journey to communalize the Shahi Eidgah Mosque issue in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav gained popularity for himself as the ‘protector of religion,’ claiming to be Lord Shri Krishna’s descendant. He ran campaigns to liberate the alleged birthplace of Lord Krishna by removing the mosque from the site.

In September 2020, he set out from Lucknow and organized a protest in Mathura near the controversial site demanding the liberation of Krishna Janambhumi.

He, along with a dozen others, were arrested for disturbing the peace in the region. Notably, Yadav is among the petitioners in the case relating to the pending mosque-temple controversy in court.

In another instance, in an attempt to incite Hindus, Yadav put up posters in Lucknow with his face and the message ‘Jaago Hindu, Jaago’ (wake up, Hindus), under the banner of the ‘Hindu Army,’ an outfit he claims works to protect ‘oppressed’ Hindus against a backdrop of anti-CAA agitations countrywide.

“I have not done anything wrong by putting up the posters. We work for Hindutva and abide by it”, Yadav said according to the report.

Following anti-Muslim riots in north-eastern Delhi in 2020, Yadav threatened to make the city ‘Islam-free’ if the government gave him a free hand.

Consequently, the Lucknow police booked him under Sections 153-A and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for promoting enmity between groups, and under Sections 66 and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for publishing obscene material.

On his official Facebook page (now unavailable), Yadav had said his outfit fights for “nyay aur dharm” (justice and religion) and that they won’t hesitate to “pick up weapons.” Yadav’s next battle would be for a “population control bill that will open the doors for the realization of a Hindu Rashtra,” according to the report of The Times of India.