The Vishva Hindu Parishad on Sunday slammed Rahul Gandhi for his “Manusmriti mindset” remark and his call to girl students to “smash patriarchy”, asking if the Congress leader will muster the same courage to publicly quote what is said about women in other religions.
Interacting with girl students at his 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' outreach programme in Pune on Saturday, Gandhi quoted a verse from the Manusmriti that says a woman must obey her father in her childhood, in youth she belongs to her husband, and when he is dead, she belongs to her sons.
Gandhi said women belong to themselves and not to their fathers, husbands or sons, and termed Manusmriti's prescription that a woman should remain under the authority of her male relatives at every stage of her life “shameful”.
Reacting to the remarks, VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a post on X, “Rahul Gandhi ji, it is very easy for you to pick a single shloka from the Manusmriti without understanding it and put the Hindu society in the dock... Do not poison the pure minds of the country's youth with your impure mindset.”
Challenging Gandhi to muster the same courage to publicly quote what is said about women in the Quran, the Bible and other Abrahamic scriptures, Bansal said Gandhi should first read the entire Manusmriti, sit at the feet of saints and commentators and then issue certificates to the Hindu society.
“Selective quotations and their distorted meanings can lead to tainted politics, but the truth does not emerge from them,” he said.
Quoting a verse from the Manusmriti, Bansal claimed that feminine power has been the identity of the country's civilisation and termed Gandhi turning it into a “Manusmriti versus Constitution” battle for political speeches an “injustice” to both history and culture.
(With inputs from PTI)