BJP leaders question Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the Manusmriti and women’s rights

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BJP MP Nishikant Dubey (left) quoted two verses from the text that emphasise respect for women, while Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (right) accused Rahul Gandhi of using women’s empowerment as a pretext to target Hinduism. File. | Photo Credit: Sansad TV, PTI

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have questioned the remarks made by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on the Manusmriti and women’s rights . BJP MP Nishikant Dubey quoted two verses from the text that emphasise respect for women, while Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused Mr. Gandhi of using women’s empowerment as a pretext to target Hinduism.

Mr. Sarma also asked how often the Congress leader had spoken against what he described as “patriarchal and medieval practices that persist under Sharia”.

During an interaction with female students in Maharashtra on August 22, 2026, Mr. Gandhi spoke against the “ Manusmriti mindset”, called on students to “smash patriarchy”, and said women belonged to themselves, not to their fathers, husbands or sons.

On social media platform X, the Congress party shared a photograph of him with an attributed quote: “The Manusmriti states that a woman must never be independent. But I believe women should be independent. You may have relationships with your father, brother, husband, or son, but you do not belong to them. You belong to yourself.”

Responding to the post the same day, Mr. Dubey tagged a message to Mr. Gandhi’s X handle, saying: “Reading the Manusmriti may not be possible for you, @RahulGandhi ji. This is a shloka from the Manusmriti; read, understand, and speak. Because of the English language, do you know nothing about India’s Vedas, Puranas, scriptures, Ramayana, and Mahabharata?”

Mr. Dubey mentioned two verses from the Manusmriti , along with translations that read: “Where women are respected and worshipped, the gods reside; where they are not respected, all work and noble deeds bring no results.”

On Monday (August 24, 2026), Mr. Sarma posted on X: “Rahul Gandhi is no champion of women’s rights. He is simply a Hindu baiter, using the cause of women’s empowerment as a convenient smokescreen to target and discredit Hindu Dharma.”

“Consider this: how many times has he spoken with the same outrage against patriarchal and medieval practices that persist under Sharia? Never. While Sharia is foundational to Islamic jurisprudence, Manusmriti has no comparable scriptural authority in Hindu Dharma. It is not even a universally binding code for Hindus,” Mr.